Cibrarp  of  Che  Cheoloc^cal  Seminar)) 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 

PRESENTED  BY 

John  Stuart  Conning,  D.D. 


DS  135  . R9  R3 

1913 

Raisin,  Jacob 

Salmon , 

1877- 

1946. 

The  Haskalah 

movement 

in 

Russia _ 

Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2018  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


https://archive.org/details/haskalahrnovement00rais_0 


THE 

HASKALAH  MOVEMENT 
IN  RUSSIA 


And  the  “ Maskilim”  shall  shine 
As  the  brightness  of  the  firmament  .  .  . 
Many  shall  run  to  and  fro, 

And  knowledge  shall  be  increased. 

— Dan.  xii.  3-4 


mimtmmmiiiiiiiiz 


iilillsiWI] 


TOBIAS  COHN 

1652-1759 

FROM  THE  FRONTISPIECE  OF  HIS  MA'ASEH  TOBIAH 


T^iiiiiiiiifrfffllBiiiFiiHttitiiiitffiiftiifliili 


THE 


APR  6  1942 
'%*oet  GAL  ^X' 


HASKALAH  MOVEMENT 

IN  RUSSIA 


BY 


JACOB  S.  RAISIN,  PH.D.,D.D. 


Author  of  “Sect,  Creed  and  Custom  in  Judaism,”  etc. 


Philadelphia 

The  Jewish  Publication  Society  of  America 

1913 


Copyright,  1914, 

BY 

The  Jewish  Publication  Society  or  America 


TO  AARON  S.  RAISIN 

Your  name ,  dear  father,  will  not  he  found  in  the 
following  pages,  for,  like  “  the  waters  of  the  Siloam 
that  run  softly,”  you  ever  preferred  to  pursue  your 
useful  course  in  unassuming  silence .  Yet,  as  it  is 
your  life,  devoted  entirely  to  meditating,  learning, 
and  teaching,  that  inspired  me  in  my  effort,  I  dedi¬ 
cate  this  hook  to  you;  and  I  am  happy  to  know  that 
I  thus  not  only  dedicate  it  to  one  of  the  noblest  of 
Maskilim,  hut  at  the  same  time  offer  you  some  slight 
token  of  the  esteem  and  affection  felt  for  you  hy 

Your  Son, 

JACOB  S,  RAISIN 


5 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


Preface  .  1 1 

Chapter  I.  The  Pre-Haskalah  Period .  17 

Chapter  II.  The  Period  of  Transition . .  53 

Chapter  III.  The  Dawn  of  Haskalah .  no 

Chapter  IV.  Conflicts  and  Conquests . 162 

Chapter  V.  Russification,  Reformation,  and  Assimila¬ 
tion  .  222 

Chapter  VI.  The  Awakening .  268 

Notes  .  305 

Bibliography  .  331 

Index  . 339 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


Tobias  Cohn  (1652-1759)  . 

Isaac  Bar  Levinsohn  (1788-1860)  . 

Max  Lilienthal  (1815-1882)  . . 

Alexander  Zederbaum  (1816-1893)  . 

Perez  ben  Mosheh  Smolenskin  (1842-1885)... 
Moses  Lob  Lilienblum  (1843-1910) . 


. . .  Frontispiece 
facing  page  64 


M 


M 


120 


it 

« 

« 


« 

175 

M 

220 

it 

280 

9 


PREFACE 


To  the  lover  of  mankind  the  history  of  the 
Russo- Jewish  renaissance  is  an  encouraging  and  in¬ 
spiring  phenomenon.  Seldom  has  a  people  made 
.  such  rapid  strides  forward  as  the  Russian  Jews. 
From  the  melancholy  regularity  that  marked  their 
existence  a  little  more  than  two  generations  ago, 
from  the  darkness  of  the  Middle  Ages  in  which 
they  were  steeped  until  the  time  of  Alexander  II, 
they  emerged  suddenly  into  the  life  and  light  of  the 
West,  and  some  of  the  most  intrepid  devotees  of 
latter-day  culture,  both  in  Europe  and  in  America, 
have  come  from  among  them.  Destitute  of  every¬ 
thing  that  makes  for  enlightenment,  and  under  the 
dominion  of  a  Government  which  sought  to  extin¬ 
guish  the  few  rushlights  that  scattered  the  shadows 
around  them,  they  nevertheless  snatched  victory 
from  defeat,  sloughed  off  medieval  superstition, 
and,  disregarding  the  Dejanira  shirt  of  modern  dis¬ 
abilities,  compelled  their  countrymen  to  admit  more 
than  once  that 

Tho’  I’ve  belted  you  and  flayed  you, 

By  the  livin’  Gawd  that  made  you, 

You’re  a  better  man  than  X  am! 

11 


PREFACE 


Similar  movements  were  started  in  Germany  dur¬ 
ing  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and 
in  Austria,  notably  Galicia,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth,  but  none  stirred  the  mind  of  the  Jews 
to  the  same  degree  as  the  Haskalah  movement  in 
Russia  during  the  last  fifty  years.  In  the  former, 
the  removal  of  restrictions  soon  rendered  attempts 
toward  self-emancipation  unnecessary  on  the  part 
of  Jews,  and  the  few  Maskilim  among  them,  satis¬ 
fied  with  the  present,  devoted  themselves  to  investi¬ 
gating  and  elucidating  the  past  of  their  people’s 
history.  In  Russia  the  past  was  all  but  forgotten  on 
account  of  the  immediate  duties  of  the  present.  The 
energy  and  acquisitiveness  that  made  the  Jews  of 
happier  and  more  prosperous  lands  prominent  in 
every  sphere  of  practical  life,  were  directed  toward 
the  realm  of  thought,  and  the  merciless  severity  with 
which  the  Government  excluded  them  from  the 
enjoyment  of  things  material  only  increased  their 
ardor  for  things  spiritual  and  intellectual. 

In  its  wide  sense  Haskalah  denotes  enlighten¬ 
ment.  Those  who  strove  to  enlighten  their  be¬ 
nighted  coreligionists  or  disseminate  European  cul¬ 
ture  among  them,  were  called  Maskilim.  A  care¬ 
ful  perusal  of  this  work  will  reveal  the  exact  ideals 
these  terms  embody.  For  Haskalah  was  not  only 

12 


PREFACE 


progressive,  it  was  also  aggressive,  militant,  some¬ 
times  destructive.  From  the  days  of  Mordecai 
Giinzburg  to  the  time  of  Asher  Ginzberg  (Ahad 
Ha-'Am),  it  changed  its  tendencies  and  motives 
more  than  once.  Levinsohn,  “  the  father  of  the 
Maskilim,”  was  satisfied  with  removing  the  ban 
from  secular  learning;  Gordon  wished  to  see  his 
brethren  “Jews  at  home  and  men  abroad” ;  Smolen- 
skin  dreamed  of  the  rehabilitation  of  Jews  in  Pales¬ 
tine;  and  Ahad  Ha- Am  hopes  for  the  spiritual  re¬ 
generation  of  his  beloved  people.  Others  advo¬ 
cated  the  levelling  of  all  distinctions  between  Jews 
and  Gentiles,  or  the  upliftment  of  mankind  in  gen¬ 
eral  and  Russia  in  particular.  To  each  of  them 
Haskalah  implied  different  ideals,  and  through  each 
it  promulgated  diverse  doctrines.  To  trace  these 
varying  phases  from  an  indistinct  glimmering  in  the 
eighteenth  century  to  the  glorious  effulgence  of  the 
beginning  of  the  twentieth,  is  the  main  object  of 
this  book. 

In  pursuance  of  my  end,  I  have  paid  particular 
attention  to  the  causes  that  retarded  or  accelerated 
Russo- Jewish  cultural  advance.  As  these  causes 
originate  in  the  social,  economic,  and  political  status 
of  the  Russian  Jew,  I  frequently  portray  political 
events  as  well  as  the  state  of  knowledge,  belief,  art, 

13 


PREFACE 


and  morals  of  the  periods  under  consideration.  For 
this  reason  also  I  have  marked  the  boundaries  of 
the  Haskalah  epochs  in  correspondence  to  the  dates 
of  the  reigns  of  the  several  czars,  though  the  cor¬ 
respondence  is  not  always  exact. 

Essays  have  been  published,  on  some  of  the  topics 
treated  in  these  pages,  by  writers  in  different 
languages:  in  Russian,  by  Bramson,  Klausner,  and 
Morgulis;  in  Hebrew,  by  Izgur,  Katz,  and  Klaus¬ 
ner;  in  German,  by  Maimon,  Lilienthal,  Wengeroff, 
and  Weissberg;  in  English,  by  Lilienthal  and 
Wiener;  and  in  French,  by  Slouschz.  The  subject 
as  a  whole,  however,  has  not  been  treated.  Should 
this  work  stimulate  further  research,  I  shall  feel 
amply  rewarded.  Without  prejudice  and  without 
partiality,  by  an  honest  presentation  of  facts  drawn 
from  what  I  regard  as  reliable  sources,  I  have  tried 
to  unfold  the  story  of  the  struggle  of  five  millions  of 
human  beings  for  right  living  and  rational  thinking, 
in  the  hope  of  throwing  light  on  the  ideals  and 
aspirations  and  the  real  character  of  the  largely 
prejudged  and  misunderstood  Russian  Jew. 

In  conclusion,  I  wish  to  express  my  gratitude  and 
indebtedness  to  those  who  encouraged  me  to  pro¬ 
ceed  with  my  work  after  some  specimens  of  it  had 
been  published  in  several  Jewish  periodicals-  espe- 

14 


PREFACE 


daily  to  Doctor  Solomon  Schechter,  Rabbi  Max 
Heller,  and  Mr.  A.  S.  Freidus,  for  their  courtesy 
and  assistance  while  the  work  was  being  written. 

Jacob  S.  Raisin. 

E.  Las  Vegas,  N.  Mex., 

Thanksgiving  Day,  1909. 


15 


CHAPTER  I 


THE  PRE-HASKALAH  PERIOD 

?-i648 

“  There  is  but  one  key  to  the  present,”  says  Max 
Muller,  “  and  that  is  the  past.”  To  understand  fully 
the  growth  and  historical  development  of  a  people’s 
mind,  one  must  be  familiar  with  the  conditions  that 
have  shaped  its  present  form.  It  would  seem  neces¬ 
sary,  therefore,  to  introduce  a  description  of  the 
Haskalah  movement  with  a  rapid  survey  of  the  his¬ 
tory  of  the  Russo-Polish  Jews  from  the  time  of 
their  emergence  from  obscurity  up  to  the  middle  of 
the  seventeenth  century. 

Among  those  who  laid  the  foundations  for  the 
study  of  this  almost  unexplored  department  of  Jew¬ 
ish  history,  the  settlement  of  Jews  in  Russia  and 
their  vicissitudes  during  the  dark  ages,  the  most 
prominent  are  perhaps  Isaac  Bar  Levinsohn,  Abra¬ 
ham  Harkavy,  and  Simon  Dubnow.  There  is  much 
to  be  said  of  each  of  these  as  writers,  scholars,  and 
men.  Here  they  concern  us  as  Russio-Jewish  histo- 

17 


2 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

rians.  What  Linnaeus,  Agassiz,  and  Cuvier  did  in 
the  field  of  natural  philosophy,  they  accomplished 
in  their  chosen  province  of  Jewish  history.1  Levin- 
sohn  was  the  first  to  express  the  opinion  that  the 
Russian  Jews  hailed,  not  from  Germany,  as  is  com¬ 
monly  supposed,  but  from  the  banks  of  the  Volga. 
This  hypothesis,  corroborated  by  tradition,  Har- 
kavy  established  as  a  fact.  Originally  the  vernacu¬ 
lar  of  the  Jews  of  Volhynia,  Podolia,  and  Kiev  was 
Russian  and  Polish,  or,  rather,  the  two  being  closely 
allied,  Palaeo-Slavonic.  The  havoc  wrought  by 
the  Crusades  in  the  Jewish  communities  of  Western 
Europe  caused  a  constant  stream  of  German- Jewish 
immigrants  to  pour,  since  1090,  into  the  compara¬ 
tively  free  countries  of  the  Slavonians.  Russo- 
Poland  became  the  America  of  the  Old  World.  The 
Jewish  settlers  from  abroad  soon  outnumbered  the 
native  Jews,  and  they  spread  a  new  language  and 
new  customs  wherever  they  established  themselves.2 

Whether  the  Jews  of  Russia  were  originally 
pagans  from  the  shores  of  the  Black  and  Caspian 
Seas,  converted  to  Judaism  under  the  Khazars  dur¬ 
ing  the  eighth  century,  or  Palestinian  exiles  subju¬ 
gated  by  their  Slavonian  conquerors  and  assimilated 
with  them,  it  is  indisputable  that  they  inhabited 
what  we  know  to-day  as  Russia  long  before  the 

18 


THE  PRE-HASKALAH  PERIOD 


Varangian  prince  Rurik  came,  at  the  invitation  of 
Scythian  and  Sarmatian  savages,  to  lay  the  founda¬ 
tion  of  the  Muscovite  empire.  In  Feodosia  there  is 
a  synagogue  at  least  a  thousand  years  old.  The 
Greek  inscription  on  a  marble  slab,  dating  back  to 
80-81  B.  c.  E.,  preserved  in  the  Imperial  Hermitage 
in  St.  Petersburg,  makes  it  certain  that  they  flour¬ 
ished  in  the  Crimea  before  the  destruction  of  the 
Temple.  In  a  communication  to  the  Russian  Geo¬ 
graphical  Society,  M.  Pogodin  makes  the  statement, 
that  there  still  exist  a  synagogue  and  a  cemetery  in 
the  Crimea  that  belong  to  the  pre-Christian  era. 
Some  of  the  tombstones,  bearing  Jewish  names,  and 
decorated  with  the  seven-branched  Menorah,  date 
back  to  1 5  7  B.  c.  E. ;  while  Chufut-Kale,  also  known 
as  the  Rock  of  the  Jews  (Sela'  ha-Yehudim),  from 
the  fortress  supposed  to  have  been  built  there  by  the 
Jews,  would  prove  Jewish  settlements  to  have  been 
made  there  during  the  Babylonian  or  Persian 
captivity.8 

Though  the  same  antiquity  cannot  be  established 
for  other  Jewish  settlements,  we  know  that  Kiev, 
“  the  mother  of  Russian  cities,”  had  many  Jews 
long  before  the  eighth  century,  who  thus  antedated 
the  Russians  as  citizens.  According  to  Joseph  Ha- 
kohen  they  came  there  from  Persia  in  690,  accord- 

19 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

ing  to  Malishevsky  in  776.  It  is  certain  that  their 
influence  was  felt  as  early  as  the  latter  part  of  the 
tenth  century.  The  Russian  Chronicles  ascribed 
to  Nestor  relate  that  they  endeavored,  in  986,  to 
induce  Grand  Duke  Vladimir  to  accept  their  re¬ 
ligion.  They  did  not  succeed  as  they  had  succeeded 
two  centuries  before  with  the  khan  of  the  Khazars.4 
Yet  the  grand  duke,  who  had  the  greatest  influence 
in  introducing  and  spreading  Greek  Catholicism, 
and  who  is  now  worshipped  as  a  saint,  was  always 
favorably  disposed  toward  them. 

There  were  other  places  that  were  inhabited 
early  by  Jews.  There  are  traditions  to  the  effect 
that  Jews  lived  in  Poland  as  early  as  the  ninth  cen¬ 
tury,  and  under  the  Boreslavs  (992-1278)  they 
are  said  to  have  enjoyed  considerable  privileges, 
carried  on  a  lively  trade,  and  spread  as  far  as  Kiev. 
Chernigov  in  Little  Russia  (the  Ukraine) ,  Baku  in 
South  Russia  (Transcaucasia),  Kalisz  and  War¬ 
saw,  Brest  and  Grodno,  in  West  Russia  (Russian 
Poland),  all  possess  Jewish  communities  of  con¬ 
siderable  antiquity.  In  the  townlet  Eishishki,  near 
Vilna,  a  tombstone  set  in  1 171  was  still  in  existence 
at  the  end  of  the  last  century,  and  Khelm,  Govern¬ 
ment  Kovno,  has  a  synagogue  to  which  tradition 
ascribes  an  age  of  eight  hundred  years.0 

20 


THE  PRE-HASKALAH  PERIOD 

The  Jewish  population  in  all  these  communities 
was  prosperous  and  respected.  Jews  were  in  favor 
with  the  Government,  enjoyed  equal  rights  with 
their  Gentile  neighbors,  and  were  especially  prom¬ 
inent  as  traders  and  farmers  of  taxes.  Their 
monoxyla,  or  one-oared  canoes,  loaded  with  silks, 
furs,  and  precious  metals,  issued  from  the  Borys- 
thanes,  traversed  the  Baltic  and  the  Euxine,  the 
Oder  and  the  Bosphorus,  the  Danube  and  the 
Black  Sea,  and  carried  on  the  commerce  between  the 
Turks  and  the  Slavonians.  They  were  granted  the 
honorable  and  lucrative  privilege  of  directing  and 
controlling  the  mints,  and  that  of  putting  Hebrew 
as  well  as  Slavonic  inscriptions  on  their  coins.6  In 
the  Lithuanian  Magna  Charta,  granted  by  Vitold 
in  1388,  the  Jews  of  Brest  were  given  many  rights, 
and  about  a  year  later  those  of  Grodno  were  per¬ 
mitted  to  engage  in  all  pursuits  and  occupations, 
and  exempted  from  paying  taxes  on  synagogues  and 
cemeteries.  They  possessed  full  jurisdiction  in  their 
own  affairs.  Some  were  raised  to  the  nobility, 
notably  the  Josephovich  brothers,  Abraham  and 
Michael.  Under  King  Alexander  Jagellon,  Abra¬ 
ham  was  assessor  of  Kovno,  alderman  of  Smolensk, 
and  prefect  of  Minsk;  he  was  called  “  sir”  (jas- 
trzhembets) ,  was  presented  with  the  estates  of  Voi- 

21 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

dung,  Grinkov,  and  Troki  (1509),  and  appointed 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  in  Lithuania  (1510). 
The  other  brother,  Michael,  was  made  “  fiscal  agent 
to  the  king.”  In  the  eighteenth  century,  Andrey 
Abramovich,  of  the  same  family  but  not  of  the 
Jewish  faith,  was  senator  and  castellan  of  Brest- 
Litovsk.7  They  were  not  unique  exceptions.  Abra¬ 
ham  Shmoilovich  of  Turisk  is  spoken  of  as  “  hon¬ 
orable  sir  ”  in  leases  of  large  estates.  Affras  Rach- 
mailovich  and  Judah  Bogdanovich  figure  among  the 
merchant  princes  of  Livonia  and  Lithuania;  and 
Francisco  Molo,  who  settled  later  in  Amsterdam, 
was  financial  agent  of  John  III  of  Poland  in  1679. 
The  influence  of  the  last-named  was  so  great  with 
the  Dutch  States-General  that  the  Treaty  of  Rys- 
wick  was  concluded  with  Louis  XIV,  in  1697, 
through  his  mediation.8 

That  Russo-Poland  should  have  elected  a  Jewish 
king  on  two  occasions,  a  certain  Abraham  Proch- 
ovnik  in  842  and  the  famous  Saul  Wahl9  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  sounds  legendary;  but  that  there 
was  a  Jewish  queen,  called  Esterka,  is  probable, 
and  that  some  Jews  attained  to  political  eminence  is 
beyond  reasonable  doubt.10  Records  have  been  dis¬ 
covered  concerning  two  envoys,  Saul  and  Joseph, 
who  served  the  Slavonic  czar  about  960,  and  an 

22 


THE  PRE-HASKALAH  PERIOD 

interesting  story  is  told  of  two  Jewish  soldiers, 
Ephraim  Moisievich  and  Anbal  the  Jassin,  who 
won  the  confidence  of  Prince  Andrey  Bogolyubsky 
of  Kiev,  and  afterwards  became  leaders  in  a  con¬ 
spiracy  against  him  (1174). 11  Henry,  Duke  of 
Anjou,  the  successor  of  Sigismud  August  on  the 
throne  of  Poland  and  Lithuania,  owed  his  election 
mainly  to  the  efforts  of  Solomon  Ashkenazi.  Ivan 
Vassilyevich,  too,  had  many  and  important  relations 
with  Jews,  and  his  favorable  attitude  towards  them 
is  amply  proved  by  the  fact  that  his  family  physician 
was  the  Jew  Leo  (1490).  Throughout  his  reign 
he  maintained  an  uninterrupted  friendship  with 
Chozi  Kokos,  a  Jew  of  the  Crimea,  and  he  did  not 
hesitate  to  offer  hospitality  and  protection  to  Zacha- 
rias  de  Guizolfi,  though  the  latter  was  not  in  a  posi¬ 
tion  to  reciprocate  such  favors.12 

In  addition  there  are  less  prominent  individuals 
who  received  honors  at  the  hands  of  their  non- 
Jewish  countrymen.  Mei'r  Ashkenazi  of  Kaffa,  in 
the  Crimea,  who  was  slain  by  pirates  on  a  trip  from 
“  Gava  to  Dakhel,”  was  envoy  of  the  khan  of  the 
Tatars  to  the  king  of  Poland  in  the  sixteenth  cen¬ 
tury.  Mention  is  made  of  “  Jewish  Cossacks,” 
who  distinguished  themselves  on  the  field  of  battle, 
and  were  elevated  to  the  rank  of  major  and  colonel.13 

23 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


While  the  common  opinion  regarding  Jews  ex¬ 
pressed  itself  in  merry  England  in  such  ballads  as 
“  The  Jewish  Dochter,”  and  “  Gernutus,  the  Jew 
of  Venice,”  many  a  Little  Russian  song  had  the 
bravery  of  a  Jewish  soldier  as  its  burden.  In  every¬ 
thing  save  religion  the  Jews  were  hardly  distinguish¬ 
able  from  their  neighbors. 

There  are — writes  Cardinal  Commendoni,  an  eye-witness — a 
great  many  Jews  in  these  provinces,  including  Lithuania,  who  are 
not,  as  in  other  places,  regarded  with  disrespect.  They  do  not 
maintain  themselves  miserably  by  base  profits;  they  are  landed 
proprietors,  are  engaged  in  business,  and  even  devote  themselves 
to  the  study  of  literature  and,  above  all,  to  medicine  and  astron¬ 
omy;  they  hold  almost  everywhere  the  commission  of  levying 
customs  duties,  are  classed  among  the  most  honest  people,  wear 
no  outward  mark  to  distinguish  them  from  the  Christians,  and  are 
permitted  to  carry  swords  and  walk  about  with  their  arms.  In 
a  word  they  have  equal  rights  with  the  other  citizens. 

A  similar  statement  is  made  by  Joseph  Del- 
medigo,  who  spent  many  years  in  Livonia  and  Lith¬ 
uania  as  physician  to  Prince  Radziwill.14 

In  his  inimitable  manner  Gibbon  describes  the 
fierce  struggle  the  Greek  Catholic  Church  had  to 
wage  before  she  obtained  a  foothold  in  Russia,  but 
he  neglects  to  mention  the  fact  that  Judaism  no  less 
than  paganism  was  among  her  formidable  oppon- 

24 


THE  PRE-HASKALAH  PERIOD 


ents.  The  contest  lasted  several  centuries,  and  in 
many  places  it  is  undecided  to  this  day.15  The 
Khazars,  who  had  become  proselytes  in  the  eighth 
century,  were  constantly  encroaching  upon  Russian 
Christianity.  Buoyant  as  both  were  with  the  vigor 
of  youth,  missionary  zeal  was  at  its  height  among 
the  two  contending  religions.  Each  made  war  upon 
the  other.  We  read  that  Photius  of  Constantinople 
sent  a  message  of  thanks  to  Archbishop  Anthony 
of  Kertch  (858-859)  for  his  efforts  to  convert  the 
Jews;  that  the  first  Bishop  of  the  Established 
Church  (1035)  was“  Lukas,  the  little  Jew”  (Luka 
Zhidyata),  who  was  appointed  to  his  office  by 
Yaroslav;  and  that  St.  Feodosi  Pechersky  was  fond 
of  conversing  with  learned  Jews  on  matters  of  theol¬ 
ogy.18  On  the  other  hand,  the  efforts  of  the  Jews 
were  not  without  success.  The  baptism  of  the  pious 
Olga  marks  an  era  in  Russian  Christianity,  the  be¬ 
ginning  of  the  “  Judaizing  heresy,”  which  centuries 
of  persecution  only  strengthened.  In  1425,  Zacha- 
rias  of  Kiev,  who  is  reputed  to  have  “  studied 
astrology,  necromancy,  and  various  other  magic 
arts,”  converted  the  priest  Dionis,  the  Archbishop 
Aleksey,  and,  through  the  latter,  many  more  clergy¬ 
men  of  Novgorod,  Moscow,  and  Pskov.  Aleksey 
became  a  devout  Jew.  He  called  himself  Abraham 

25 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

and  his  wife  Sarah.  Yet,  strange  to  say,  he  retained 
the  favor  of  the  Grand  Duke  Ivan  Vassilyevich, 
even  after  the  latter’s  daughter-in-law,  Princess 
Helena,  his  secretary  Theodore  Kuritzin,  the  Arch¬ 
imandrite  Sosima,  the  monk  Zacharias,  and  other 
persons  of  note  had  entered  the  fold  of  Judaism 
through  his  influence. 

The  “  heresy  ”  spread  over  many  parts  of  the 
empire,  and  the  number  of  its  adherents  constantly 
grew.  Archbishop  Nikk  complains  that  in  the  very 
monastery  of  Moscow  there  were  presumably  con¬ 
verted  Jews,  “  who  had  again  begun  to  practice  their 
old  Jewish  religion  and  demoralize  the  young 
monks.”  In  Poland,  too,  proselytism  was  of  fre¬ 
quent  occurrence,  especially  in  the  fifteenth  and 
sixteenth  centuries.  The  religious  tolerance  of  Casi- 
mir  IV  (1434-1502)  and  his  immediate  successors, 
and  the  new  doctrines  preached  by  Huss  and  Luther, 
which  permeated  the  upper  classes  of  society,  ren¬ 
dered  the  Poles  more  liberal  on  the  one  hand,  and 
on  the  other  the  Jews  more  assertive.  We  hear 
of  a  certain  nobleman,  George  Morschtyn,  who 
married  a  Jewess,  Magdalen,  and  had  his  daugh¬ 
ter  raised  in  the  religion  of  her  mother.  In  fact, 
at  a  time  when  Jews  in  Spain  assumed  the  mask 
of  Christianity  to  escape  persecution,  Russian  and 

26 


THE  PRE-HASKALAH  PERIOD 


Polish  Christians  by  birth  could  choose,  with  little 
fear  of  danger,  to  lead  the  Jewish  life.  It  was  not 
till  about  the  eighteenth  century  that  the  Govern¬ 
ment  began  to  resort  to  the  usual  methods  of  eradi¬ 
cating  heresy.  Katharina  Weigel,  a  lady  famous 
for  her  beauty,  who  embraced  Judaism,  was  decapit¬ 
ated  in  Cracow  at  the  instigation  of  Bishop  Peter 
Gamrat.  On  the  deposition  of  his  wife,  Captain 
Vosnitzin  of  the  Polish  navy  was  put  to  death  by 
auto-da-fe  (July  15,  1738).  The  eminent  “  Ger 
Zedek,”  Count  Valentine  Pototzki,  less  fortunate 
than  his  comrade  and  fellow-convert  Zaremba,  was 
burnt  at  the  stake  in  Vilna  (May  24,  1749),  and 
his  teacher  in  the  Jewish  doctrines,  Menahem 
Mann,  was  tortured  and  executed  a  few  months 
later,  at  the  age  of  seventy.  But  these  measures 
proved  of  little  avail.  According  to  Martin  Bielski, 
the  noted  historian,  Jews  saved  their  proselytes 
from  the  impending  doom  by  transporting  them 
to  Turkey.  Many  of  them  sought  refuge  in  Am¬ 
sterdam.  For  those  who  remained  behind  their 
new  coreligionists  provided  through  collections 
made  for  that  purpose  in  Russia  and  in  Germany. 
To  this  day  these  Russian  and  Polish  proselytes 
adhere  steadfastly  to  their  faith,  and  whether  they 
migrate  to  America  or  Palestine  to  escape  the  perse- 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

cution  of  their  countrymen,  they  seldom,  if  ever, 
indulge  in  the  latitudinarianism  into  which  many  of 
longer  Jewish  lineage  fall  so  readily  when  removed 
from  old  moorings.17 

That  the  Russian  Jews  of  the  day  were  not  alto¬ 
gether  unenlightened,  that  they  not  only  practiced 
the  Law  devoutly,  but  also  studied  it  diligently,  and 
cultivated  the  learning  of  the  time  as  well,  we  may 
safely  infer  from  researches  recently  made.  Cyril, 
or  Constantine,  “  the  philosopher,”  the  apostle  to 
the  Slavonians,  acquired  a  knowledge  of  Hebrew 
while  at  Kherson,  and  was  probably  aided  by  Jews 
in  his  translation  of  the  Bible  into  Slavonic.  Manu¬ 
scripts  of  Russo-Jewish  commentaries  t6  the  Scrip¬ 
tures,  written  as  early  as  1094  and  1124,  are  still 
preserved  in  the  Vatican  and  Bodleian  libraries,  and 
copyists  were  doing  fairly  good  work  at  Azov  in 
1274. 

Jewish  scholars  frequented  celebrated  seats  of 
learning  in  foreign  lands.  Before  the  end  of  the 
twelfth  century  traces  of  them  are  to  be  found  in 
France,  Italy,  and  Spain.  That  in  the  eleventh  cen¬ 
tury  Judah  Halevi  of  Toledo  and  Nathan  of  Rome 
should  have  been  familiar  with  Russian  words  can¬ 
not  but  be  attributed  to  their  contact  with  Russian 
Jews.  However,  in  the  case  of  these  two  scholars, 

28 


THE  PRE-HASKALAH  PERIOD 

it  may  possibly  be  ascribed  to  their  great  erudition 
or  extensive  travels.  But  the  many  Slavonic  expres¬ 
sions  occurring  in  the  commentaries  of  Rashi 
(1040-1105),  and  employed  by  Joseph  Caro  (ab. 
1 140) ,  Benjamin  of  Tudela  (ab.  1160),  and  Isaac 
of  Vienna  (ab.  1250) ,  lend  color  to  Harkavy’s  con¬ 
tention,  that  Russian  was  once  the  vernacular  of  the 
Russian  Jews,  and  they  also  argue  in  favor  of  our 
contention,  that  these  natives  of  the  “  land  of  Ca¬ 
naan  ” — as  the  country  of  the  Slavs  was  then  called 
in  Hebrew — came  into  personal  touch  with  the 
“  lights  and  leaders  ”  of  other  Jewish  communities. 
Indeed,  Rabbi  Moses  of  Kiev  is  mentioned  as  one  of 
the  pupils  of  Jacob  Tam,  the  Tosafist  of  France  (d. 
1170),  and  Asheri,  or  Rosh,  of  Spain  is  reported 
to  have  had  among  his  pupils  Rabbi  Asher  and 
Master  (Bahur)  Jonathan  from  Russia.  From 
these  peripatetic  scholars  perhaps  came  the  martyrs 
of  1270,  referred  to  in  the  Memorbuch  of  May- 
ence.  It  was  Rabbi  Moses  who,  while  still  in  Rus¬ 
sia,  corresponded  with  Samuel  ben  Ali,  head  of  the 
Babylonian  Academy,  and  called  the  attention  of 
Western  scholars  to  certain  Gaonic  decisions.  An¬ 
other  rabbi,  Isaac,  or  Itshke,  of  Chernigov,  was 
probably  the  first  Talmudist  in  England,  and  his  de¬ 
cisions  were  regarded  as  authoritative  on  certain 

29 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

occasions.  These  and  others  like  them  wrote  super¬ 
commentaries  on  the  commentaries  of  Rashi  and 
Ibn  Ezra,  the  most  popular  and  profound  scholars 
medieval  Jewry  produced,  and  made  copies  of  the 
works  of  other  authors.18 

Soon  the  Russo-Polish  Jews  established  at  home 
what  they  had  been  compelled  to  seek  abroad. 
Hearing  of  the  advantages  offered  in  the  great 
North-East,  German  Jews  flocked  thither  in  such 
numbers  as  to  dominate  and  absorb  the  original 
Russians  and  Poles.  A  new  element  asserted  itself. 
Names  like  Ashkenazi,  Heilperin,  Hurwitz,  Lan¬ 
dau,  Luria,  Margolis,  Schapiro,  Weil,  Zarfati,  etc., 
variously  spelled,  took  the  place,  through  intermar¬ 
riage  and  by  adoption,  of  the  ancient  Slavonic 
nomenclature.  The  language,  manners,  modes  of 
thought,  and,  to  a  certain  extent,  even  the  physiog¬ 
nomy  of  the  earlier  settlers,  underwent  a  more  or 
less  radical  change.  In  some  provinces  the  conflict 
lasted  longer  than  in  others.  To  this  day  not  a  few 
Russian  Jews  would  seem  to  be  of  Slavonic  rather 
than  Semitic  extraction.  As  late  as  the  sixteenth 
century  there  was  still  a  demand  in  certain  places 
for  a  Russian  translation  of  the  Hebrew  Book  of 
Common  Prayer,  and  in  1635  Rabbi  Meir  Ash¬ 
kenazi,  who  came  from  Frankfort-on-the-Main  to 

30 


THE  PRE-HASKALAH  PERIOD 


study  in  Lublin,  and  was  retained  as  rabbi  in 
Mohilev-on-the-Dnieper,  had  cause  to  exclaim, 
“  Would  to  God  that  our  coreligionists  all  spoke 
the  same  language — German.”  10  Even  Maimon, 
in  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  men¬ 
tions  one,  by  no  means  an  exception,  who  did  not 
“  understand  the  Jewish  language,  and  made  use, 
therefore,  of  the  Russian.”  20  But  by  the  middle  of 
the  seventeenth  century  the  amalgamation  was  al¬ 
most  complete.  It  resulted  in  a  product  entirely 
new.  As  the  invasion  of  England  by  the  Normans 
produced  the  Anglo-Saxon,  so  the  inundation  of 
Russia  by  the  Germans  produced  the  Slav-Teuton. 
This  is  the  clue  to  the  study  of  the  Haskalah,  as  will 
appear  from  what  follows. 

Russo-Poland  gradually  became  the  cynosure  of 
the  Talmudic  world,  the  “  Aksanye  shel  Torah,” 
the  asylum  of  the  Law,  whence  “  enlargement  and 
deliverance  ”  arose  for  the  traditions  which  the 
Jews  carried  with  them,  through  fire  and  water,  dur¬ 
ing  the  dreary  centuries  of  their  dispersion.  It  be¬ 
came  to  Jews  what  Athens  was  to  ancient  Greece, 
Rome  to  medieval  Christendom,  New  England  to 
our  early  colonies.  With  the  invention  and  impor¬ 
tation  of  the  printing-press,  the  publication  and 
acquisition  of  the  Bible,  the  Talmud,  and  most  of 

31 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

the  important  rabbinic  works  were  facilitated.  As 
a  consequence,  yeshibot,  or  colleges,  for  the  study 
of  Jewish  literature,  were  founded  in  almost  every 
community.  Their  fame  reached  distant  lands.  It 
became  a  popular  saying  that  “  from  Kiev  shall  go 
forth  the  Law,  and  the  word  of  God  from  Staro- 
dub.”  Horodno,  the  vulgar  pronunciation  of  Grod¬ 
no,  was  construed  to  mean  Har  Adonai,  “  the 
Mount  of  the  Lord.”  A  pious  rabbi  did  not  hesitate 
to  write  to  a  colleague,  “  Be  it  known  to  the  high 
honor  of  your  glory  that  is  is  preferable  by  far  to 
dwell  in  the  land  of  the  Russ  and  promote  the  study 
of  the  Torah  in  Israel  than  in  the  land  of  Israel.”  21 
Especially  the  part  of  Poland  ultimately  swallowed 
up  by  Russia  was  the  new  Palestine  of  the  Diaspora. 
Thither  flocked  all  desirous  of  becoming  adepts  in 
the  dialectics  of  the  rabbis,  “  of  learning  how  to 
swim  in  the  sea  of  the  Talmud.”  It  was  there  that 
the  voluminous  works  of  Hebrew  literature  were 
studied,  literally  “  by  day  and  by  night,”  and  the 
subtleties  of  the  Talmudists  were  developed  to  a 
degree  unprecedented  in  Jewish  history.  Thither 
was  sent,  from  the  distant  Netherlands,  the  young¬ 
est  son  of  Manasseh  ben  Israel,  and  he  “  became 
mighty  in  the  Talmud  and  master  of  four  lan¬ 
guages.”  Thither  came,  from  Prague,  the  after- 

32 


THE  PRE-HASKALAH  PERIOD 

wards  famous  Cabbalist,  author,  and  rabbi,  Isaiah 
Horowitz  (ab.  1555-1630),  and  there  he  chose  to 
remain  the  rest  of  his  days.  Thither  also  went, 
from  Frankfort,  the  above-mentioned  Meir  Ash¬ 
kenazi,  who,  according  to  some,  was  the  first  author 
of  note  in  White  Russia. 

From  everywhere  they  came  “  to  pour  water  on 
the  hands  and  sit  at  the  feet  ”  of  the  great  ones  of 
the  second  Palestine.22 

For  Jewish  solidarity  was  more  than  a  word  in 
those  days.  “  Sefardim  ”  had  not  yet  learned  to 
boast  of  aristocratic  lineage,  nor  “  Ashkenazim  ”  to 
look  down  contemptuously  upon  their  Slavonic  co¬ 
religionists.  It  was  before  the  removal  of  civil  dis¬ 
abilities  from  one  portion  of  the  Jewish  people  had 
sowed  the  seed  of  arrogance  toward  the  other  less 
favored  portion.  Honor  was  accorded  to  whom  it 
was  due,  regardless  of  the  locality  in  which  he  hap¬ 
pened  to  have  been  born.  Gluckel  von  Hameln 
states  in  her  Memoirs  that  preference  was  some¬ 
times  given  to  the  decisions  of  the  “  great  ones  of 
Poland,”  and  mentions  with  pride  that  her  brother 
Shmuel  married  the  daughter  of  the  great  Reb 
Shulem  of  Lemberg.23  With  open  arms,  Amster¬ 
dam,  Frankfort,  Fiirth,  Konigsberg,  Metz,  Prague, 
and  other  communities  renowned  for  wealth  and 


3 


33 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

learning,  welcomed  the  acute  Talmudists  of  Brest, 
Grodno,  Kovno,  Lublin,  Minsk,  and  Vilna,  when¬ 
ever  they  were  willing  or  compelled  to  consider  a 
call.  The  practice  of  summoning  Russo-Polish 
rabbis  to  German  posts  was  carried  so  far  that  it 
aroused  the  displeasure  of  the  Western  scholars, 
and  they  complained  of  being  slighted.24 

The  reverence  for  Slavonic  learning  was  strik¬ 
ingly  illustrated  during  the  years  following  the  Cos¬ 
sack  massacres,  when  many  Russo-Polish  rabbis  fled 
for  safety  to  foreign  lands.  Frankfort,  Fiirth, 
Prague,  and  Vienna  successively  elected  the  fugitive 
Shabbatai  Horowitz  of  Ostrog  as  their  religious 
guide.  David  Taz  of  Vladimir  became  rabbi  of 
Steinitz  in  Moravia;  Ephraim  Hakohen  was  called 
to  Trebitsch  in  Moravia  and  to  Ofen  in  Hungary; 
David  of  Lyda,  to  Mayence  and  Amsterdam,  and 
Naphtali  Kohen,  to  Frankfort-on-the-Main  in 
1 704,  and  later  to  Breslau.  No  less  personages  than 
Isaac  Aboab  and  Saul  Morteira  welcomed  the  mer- 
chant-Talmudist  Moses  Rivkes  of  Vilna  when  he 
sought  refuge  in  Amsterdam,  and  they  entrusted  to 
him  the  task  of  editing  the  Shulhan  Arnk,  his  mar¬ 
ginal  notes  to  which,  the  Beer  ha-Golah,  have  ever 
since  been  printed  with  the  text.  In  addition  to 
rabbis,  Lithuania  and  other  provinces  furnished 

34 


THE  PRE-HASKALAH  PERIOD 

teachers  for  the  young,  melammedim,  who  exerted 
considerable  influence  upon  the  people  among  whom 
they  lived.  tTheir  opinions,  we  are  told,  were 
highly  valued  in  the  choice  of  rabbis.25 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  supremacy  in  the 
Talmud  was  secured  at  the  cost  of  secular  knowl¬ 
edge,  or  what  was  then  regarded  as  such.  Their 
familiarity  with  other  branches  of  study  was  not 
inferior  to  that  of  the  Jews  in  better-known  lands. 
Not  a  few  of  the  prominent  men  united  piety  with 
philosophy,  and  thorough  knowledge  of  the  Tal¬ 
mud  with  mastery  of  one  or  more  of  the  sciences  of 
the  time.  Data  on  this  phase  of  the  subject  might 
have  been  much  more  abundant,  had  not  the  storm 
of  persecution  suddenly  swept  over  the  communities, 
destroying  them  and  their  records.  What  we  still 
possess  indicates  what  may  have  been  lost.  The 
Ukraine  was  famous  for  its  scholars.  Among  them 
was  Jehiel  Michael  of  Nemirov,  reputed  to  have 
been  “  versed  in  all  the  sciences  of  the  world.”  88 
Several  of  them  were  poets  and  grammarians. 
Poems  of  a  liturgical  character  are  still  extant  in 
which  they  bemoan  their  plight  or  assert  their  faith 
hopefully.  Such  were  the  poems  of  Ephraim  of 
Khelm,  Joseph  of  Kobrin,  Solomon  of  Zamoscz, 
and  Shabbatai’  Kohen.  The  last,  eminent  as  a  Tal- 

85 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

mudist,  the  author  of  commentaries  on  the  Shulhan 
'Aruk  approved  by  the  leading  rabbis  of  his  genera¬ 
tion,  is  also  known  as  a  very  trustworthy  historian. 
His  Megillah  'Afah,  written  in  classic  Hebrew,  is 
a  valuable  source  of  information  on  the  critical 
period  in  which  he  lived.  He  won  the  esteem  of  the 
Polish  nobility  by  his  secular  attainments.  To  judge 
from  his  correspondence,  he  must  have  been  on  inti¬ 
mate  terms  with  Vidrich  of  Leipsic.27  Of  the  gram- 
marians,  Jacob  Zaslaver  wrote  on  the  Massorah, 
and  ShabbataT  Sofer  was  the  author  of  annotations 
and  treatises.28  Our  taste  in  poetry  and  grammar 
is  no  longer  the  same,  but  the  polemic  and  apolo¬ 
getic  writings  of  those  days,  called  forth  by  the 
discussions  between  Rabbanites  and  Karaites  and 
by  the  constant  attacks  of  Christianity,  are  still 
of  uncommon  interest.  Specimens  of  the  former 
kind  are  the  polemics  of  Moses  of  Shavli,  which 
caused  consternation  in  the  camp  of  the  Karaites. 
Of  the  apologetic  writings  should  be  mentioned  the 
reply,  in  Polish,  of  Jacob  Nahman  of  Belzyc  to 
Martin  Chekhovic  (Lublin,  1581),  and  the  Hizznk 
Emunah  of  the  Karaite  Isaac  ben  Abraham  of 
Troki.  In  the  latter  the  weakness  of  Christianity 
and  the  strength  of  Judaism  are  pointed  out  with 
trenchancy  never  before  reached.  The  work  stirred 

36 


THE  PRE-HASKALAH  PERIOD 

/ 

up  heated  discussions  among  the  various  Christian 
sects,  with  the  tenets  of  which  the  author  was  inti¬ 
mately  acquainted.  It  was  translated  into  Latin 
( 1 68 1 ,  1705),  Yiddish  (1717),  English  (1851), 
and  German  (1865,  1873).  Voltaire  says  that  all 
the  arguments  used  by  free-thinkers  against  Chris¬ 
tianity  were  drawn  from  it.29 

In  philosophy,  mathematics,  and  medicine,  the 
three  main  branches  of  medieval  knowledge,  many 
Slavonian  Jews  attained  eminence.  Devout  Kara¬ 
ites  as  well  as  diligent  Talmudists  found  secular 
learning  a  diversion  and  a  delight.  For  the  lovers 
of  enlightenment  Italy,  especially  Padua,  was  the 
centre  of  attraction,  as  France  and  Spain  had  been 
before,  and  Germany,  particularly  Berlin,  became 
afterwards.80  Towards  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth 
century  we  find  young  Delacrut  at  the  University  of 
Bologna,  the  philosopher  and  Cabbalist,  known  for 
his  commentaries  to  Gikatilla’s  Shaare  Orah  (Cra¬ 
cow,  1600)  and  Ben  Avigdor’s  Mar’ eh  ha-Ofanim 
(1720),  and  his  translation  of  Gossuin’s  L’image 
du  monde  (Amsterdam,  1733).  His  famous  dis¬ 
ciple  Mordecai  Jaffe  (Lebushim)  spent  ten  years 
in  the  study  of  astronomy  and  mathematics  before 
he  occupied  the  rabbinate  of  Grodno  (1572) 81  At 
the  request  of  Yom-Tob  Lipman  Heller,  Joseph 

37 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

ben  Isaac  Levi  wrote  a  commentary  on  Maimuni’s 
Moreh  Nebukim,  which  was  published  with  the 
former’s  annotations,  Gibe  at  ha-Moreh  (Prague, 
1611).  Deservedly  or  not,  Eliezer  Mann  was 
called  “  the  Hebrew  Socrates  ” ;  and  many  a  Maskil 
in  his  study  of  mathematics  turned  for  guidance  to 
Manoah  Handel  of  Brzeszticzka,  Volhynia,  author 
and  translator  of  several  scientific  works,  who  ren¬ 
dered  seven  Euclidean  propositions  into  Hebrew.32 

Polyglots  they  were  compelled  to  be  by  force  of 
circumstances.  When  the  exotic  Judeo-German 
finally  asserted  itself  as  the  vernacular,  the  language 
in  which  they  wrote  and  prayed  was  still  the  ancient 
Hebrew,  with  which  every  one  was  familiar,  and 
commercial  intercourse  with  their  Gentile  neighbors 
was  hardly  feasible  without  at  least  a  smattering 
of  the  local  Slavonic  dialect.  “  Look  at  our  breth¬ 
ren  in  Poland,”  exclaims  Wessely  many  years  later 
in  his  address  to  his  countrymen.  “  They  converse 
with  their  neighbors  in  good  Polish.  .  .  .  What 
excuse  have  we  for  our  brogue  and  jargon?  ”  He 
might  have  had  still  better  cause  for  complaint,  had 
he  been  aware  that  the  Yiddish  of  the  Russo-Polish 
Jews,  despite  its  considerable  Slavonic  admixture, 
was  purer  German  than  that  of  his  contemporaries 
in  Germany,  even  as  the  English  of  our  New  Eng- 

88 


THE  PRE-HASKALAH  PERIOD 


land  colonies  was  superior  to  the  Grub  Street  style 
prevalent  in  Dr.  Johnson’s  England,  and  the  Span¬ 
ish  of  our  Mexican  annexations  to  the  Castilian 
spoken  at  the  time  of  Coronado.  But  we  are  here 
concerned  with  their  knowledge  of  foreign  lan¬ 
guages.  We  shall  refer  only  to  the  Hebrew-Ger- 
man-Italian-Latin-French  dictionary  Safah  Berurah 
(Prague,  1660;  Amsterdam,  1701)  by  the  eminent 
Talmudist  Nathan  Hannover.83 

In  medicine  Jews  were  pre-eminent  in  the  Sla¬ 
vonic  countries,  as  they  were  everywhere  else.  They 
were  in  great  demand  as  court  physicians,  though 
several  had  to  pay  with  their  lives  “  for  having 
failed  to  effect  cures.”  Doctor  Leo,  who  was  at  the 
court  of  Moscow  in  1490,  was  mentioned  above. 
Jacob  Isaac,  the  “  nobleman  of  Jerusalem  ”  ( Yero- 
salimska  shlyakhta),  was  attached  to  the  court  of 
Sigismund,  where  he  was  held  in  high  esteem. 
Prince  Radziwill’s  physician  was  Itshe  Nisanovich, 
and  among  those  in  attendance  on  John  Sobieski 
were  Jonas  Casal  and  Abraham  Troki,  the  latter  the 
author  of  several  works  on  medicine  and  natural 
philosophy.34  1 

Medieval  Jewish  physicians  were  prone  to  travel, 
and  those  of  Russo-Poland  were  no  exception.  We 
find  them  in  almost  every  part  of  the  civilized 

39 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

world,  and  their  number  increases  with  the  disap¬ 
pearance  of  prejudice.  Some  were  noted  Talmud¬ 
ists,  such  as  Solomon  Luria  and  Samuel  ben  Matta- 
thias.  Abraham  Ashkenazi  Apotheker  was  not 
only  a  compounder  of  herbs  but  a  healer  of  souls, 
for  the  edification  of  which  he  wrote  his  Elixir  of 
Life  ( Sam  Hayyim,  Prague,  1590).  To  the  same 
class  belong  Moses  Katzenellenbogen  and  his  son 
Hayyim,  who  was  styled  Gaon.  In  1657  Hayyim 
visited  Italy.  He  was  welcomed  by  the  prominent 
Jews  of  Mantua,  Modena,  Venice,  and  Verona,  but 
he  preferred  to  continue  the  practice  of  his  profes¬ 
sion  in  his  home  town  Lublin.35  Nor  may  we  omit 
the  names  of  Stephen  von  Gaden  and  Moses  Coen, 
because  of  their  high  standing  among  their  col¬ 
leagues  and  the  honors  conferred  upon  them  for 
their  statesmanship.  Stephen  von  Gaden,  who  with 
Samuel  Collins  was  physician-in-ordinary  to  Czar 
Aleksey  Mikhailovich,  was  instrumental  in  remov¬ 
ing  many  disabilities  from  the  Jews  of  Moscow  and 
in  the  interior  of  Russia.  Moses  Coen,  in  conse¬ 
quence  of  the  Cossack  uprising,  escaped  to  Mol¬ 
davia,  and  was  made  court  physician  by  the  hos- 
podar  Vassile  Lupu.  But  for  Coen,  Lupu  would 
have  been  dethroned  by  those  who  conspired  against 
him.  To  his  loyalty  may  probably  be  attributed  the 

40 


THE  PRE-HASKALAH  PERIOD 

kind  treatmentMoldavian  Jews  later  enjoyed  at  the 
hands  of  the  prince.  Coen  also  exposed  the  secret 
alliance  between  Russia  and  Sweden  against  Tur¬ 
key,  and  his  advice  was  sought  by  the  doge  of 
Venice.86 

The  personage  who  typifies  best  the  enlight¬ 
ened  Slavonic  Jew  of  the  pre-Haskalah  period  is 
Tobias  Cohn  (1652-1729).  He  was  the  son  and 
grandson  of  physicians,  who  practiced  at  Kamenetz- 
Podolsk  and  Byelsk,  and  after  1648  went  to  Metz. 
After  their  father’s  death,  he  and  his  older  brother 
returned  to  Poland,  whence  Tobias,  in  turn,  emi¬ 
grated  first  to  Italy  and  then  to  Turkey.  In  Adria- 
nople  he  was  physician-in-ordinary  to  five  successive 
sultans.  In  the  history  of  medicine  he  is  remem¬ 
bered  as  the  discoverer  of  the  plica  polonica ,  and 
as  the  publisher  of  a  Materia  Medica  in  three  lan¬ 
guages.  To  the  student  of  Haskalah  he  is  interest¬ 
ing,  because  he  marks  the  close  of  the  old  and  the 
beginning  of  the  new  era.  Like  the  Maskilim  of  a 
century  or  two  centuries  later,  he  compiled  and 
edited  an  encyclopedia  in  Hebrew,  that  “  knowl¬ 
edge  be  increased  among  his  coreligionists.”  His 
acquaintance  with  learned  works  in  several  ancient 
and  modern  languages  of  which  he  was  master, 
enabled  him  to  write  his  magnum  opus,  Ma'aseh 

41 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

Tobiah,  with  tolerable  ease.  This  work  is  divided 
into  eight  parts,  devoted  respectively  to  theology, 
astronomy,  pharmacy,  hygiene,  venereal  diseases, 
botany,  cosmography,  and  chemistry.  It  is  illus¬ 
trated  with  several  plates,  among  them  the  picture 
of  an  astrolabe  and  one  of  the  human  body  treated 
as  a  house.  From  the  numerous  editions  through 
which  it  passed  (Venice,  1707,  1715,  1728,  1769), 
we  may  conclude  that  it  met  with  marked  success.81 

To  understand  the  raison  d’etre  of  the  Haskalah 
movement,  it  may  not  be  superfluous  to  cast  a  glance 
at  the  inner  social  and  religious  life  of  the  Slavonic 
Jews  during  pre-Haskalah  times.  The  labors  of 
the  farmer  are  crowned  with  success  only  when 
nature  lends  him  a  helping  hand.  His  soil  must  be 
fertile,  and  blessed  with  frequent  showers.  Nor 
would  the  Maskilim  have  accomplished  their  aim, 
had  the  material  they  found  at  hand  been  different 
from  what  it  was. 

The  Jews  in  the  land  of  the  Slavonians  were 
fortunate  in  being  regarded  as  aliens  in  a  country 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  they  inhabited  long  before 
those  who  claimed  to  be  its  possessors  by  divine 
right  of  conquest.  If  their  position  was  precarious, 
their  sufferings  were  those  of  a  conquered  nation. 

42 


THE  PRE-HASKALAH  PERIOD 


As  the  whim  and  fancy  of  the  reigning  prince,  knyaz, 
varied,  they  were  induced  one  day  to  settle  in  the 
country  by  the  offer  of  the  most  flattering  privi¬ 
leges,  and  the  next  day  they  were  expelled,  only 
to  be  requested  to  return  again.  Now  their  syna¬ 
gogues  and  cemeteries  were  exempt  from  taxation, 
now  an  additional  poll-tax  or  land-tax  was  levied 
on  every  Jew  (serebshizna)  ;  one  day  they  were 
allowed  to  live  unhampered  by  restrictions,  then 
they  were  prohibited  to  wear  certain  garments  and 
ornaments,  and  commanded  to  use  yellow  caps  and 
kerchiefs  to  distinguish  them  from  the  Gentiles 
(1566). 

But  all  this  was  the  consequence  of  political  sub¬ 
jugation.  Judged  by  the  standard  of  the  times,  they 
were  veritable  freemen,  freer  than  the  Huguenots 
of  France  and  the  Puritans  of  England.  They  were 
left  unmolested  in  the  administration  of  their  in¬ 
ternal  affairs,  and  were  permitted  to  appoint  their 
own  judges,  enforce  their  own  laws,  and  support 
their  own  institutions.  Forming  a  state  within  a 
state,  they  developed  a  civilization  contrasting 
strongly  with  that  round  about  them,  and  compar¬ 
ing  favorably  with  some  of  the  features  of  ours  of 
to-day.  Slavonic  Jewry  was  divided  into  four  dis¬ 
tricts,  consisting  of  the  more  important  communities 

48 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

(kahals),  to  which  a  number  of  smaller  ones  (pri- 
kahalki)  were  subservient.  These,  known  as  the 
Jewish  Assemblies  (zbori  zhidovskiye) ,  met  at 
stated  intervals.  As  in  our  federal  Government,  the 
administrative,  executive,  and  legislative  depart¬ 
ments  were  kept  distinct,  and  those  who  presided 
over  them  (roshim)  were  elected  annually  by  bal¬ 
lot.  These  roshim,  or  elders,  served  by  turns  for 
periods  of  one  month  each.  The  rabbi  of  each  com¬ 
munity  was  the  chief  judge,  and  was  assisted  by 
several  inferior  judges  (dayyanim).  Formatters 
of  importance  there  were  courts  of  appeal  estab¬ 
lished  in  Ostrog  and  Lemberg,  the  former  having 
jurisdiction  over  Volhynia  and  the  Ukraine,  the  lat¬ 
ter  over  the  rest  of  Jewish  Russo-Poland.  For 
inter-kahal  litigation,  there  was  a  supreme  court, 
the  Wa'ad  Arba'  ha-Arazot  (the  Synod  of  the  Four 
Countries),  which  held  its  sessions  during  the  Lub¬ 
lin  fair  in  winter  and  the  Yaroslav  fair  in  summer. 
In  cases  affecting  Jews  and  Gentiles,  a  decision  was 
given  by  the  judex  Judaeorum ,  who  held  his  office  by 
official  appointment  of  the  grand  duke. 

So  far  their  system  of  self-government  appears 
almost  a  prototype  of  our  own.  The  same  is  true 
of  their  municipal  administration.  The  rabbi,  who 
had  the  deciding  vote  in  case  of  a  dead-lock,  stood 

44 


THE  PRE-HASKALAH  PERIOD 


in  the  same  relation  to  them  as  the  mayor  holds 
to  us,  only  that  his  term  of  office,  nominally  limited 
to  three  years,  was  actually  for  life  or  during  good 
behavior.  Yet  the  power  vested  in  him  was  only 
delegated  power.  A  number  of  selectmen,  or 
aldermen,  guarded  the  rights  of  the  community  with 
the  utmost  jealousy,  and  tolerated  no  innovation, 
unless  previously  sanctioned  by  them.  There  were 
also  several  honorary  offices,  with  a  one-year  tenure, 
which  none  could  fill  who  had  not  had  experience  in 
an  inferior  position.  The  chief  duties  attached  to 
these  offices  were  to  appraise  the  amount  of  taxa¬ 
tion,  pay  the  salaries  of  the  rabbi,  his  dayyanim, 
and  the  teachers  of  the  public  schools,  provide  for 
the  poor,  and,  above  all,  intercede  with  the  Govern¬ 
ment.38 

Still  more  interesting  and,  for  our  purpose,  more 
important  were  their  public  and  private  institutions 
of  learning.  Jews  have  always  been  noted  for  the 
solicitous  care  they  exercise  in  the  education  of  the 
young.  The  Slavonic  Jews  surpassed  their  brethren 
of  other  countries  in  this  respect.  At  times  they 
wrenched  the  tender  bond  of  parental  love  in  their 
ardor  for  knowledge.  With  a  republican  form  of 
government  they  created  an  aristocracy,  not  of 
wTealth  or  of  blood,  but  of  intellect.  The  education 

45 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

of  girls  was,  indeed,  neglected.  To  be  able  to  read 
her  prayers  in  Hebrew  and  to  write  Yiddish  was 
all  that  was  expected  of  a  mother  in  Israel.  It  was 
otherwise  with  the  boys.  Every  Jew  deemed  him¬ 
self  in  duty  bound  to  educate  his  son.  “  Learning 
is  the  best  merchandise  ” — Torah  iz  die  heste  se- 
horah — was  the  lesson  inculcated  from  cradle  to 
manhood,  the  precept  followed  from  manhood  to 
old  age.  All  the  lullabies  transmitted  to  us  from 
earliest  times  indicate  the  pursuit  of  knowledge  as 
the  highest  ambition  cherished  by  mothers  for  their 
sons : 

Patsche,  patsche,  little  tootsies, 

We  shall  buy  us  little  bootsies; 

Little  bootsies  we  shall  buy, 

To  run  to  heder  we  shall  try; 

Torah  we’ll  learn  and  all  good  ma'alot  (qualities), 

On  our  wedding  eve  we  shall  solve  sha’alot  (ritual  problems).39 

To  have  a  scholarly  son  or  son-in-law  was  the 
best  passport  to  the  highest  circles,  a  means  of  rising 
from  the  lowliest  to  the  loftiest  station  in  life. 

It  is  no  wonder,  then,  that  schools  abounded  in 
every  community.  At  the  early  age  of  four  the 
child  was  usually  sent  to  the  heder  (school;  liter¬ 
ally,  room),  where  he  studied  until  he  was  ready 
for  the  yeshibah,  the  higher  “  seat  ”  of  learning. 

46 


THE  PRE-HASKALAH  PERIOD 


The  melammedim,  teachers,  were  graded  according 
to  their  ability,  and  the  school  year  consisted  of  two 
terms,  zemannim,  from  the  first  Sabbath  after  the 
Holy  Days  to  Passover  and  from  after  Passover  to 
Rosh  ha-Shanah.  The  boy’s  intellectual  capacities 
were  steadily,  if  not  systematically,  cultivated,  some¬ 
times  at  the  expense  of  his  bodily  development. 
It  was  not  unusual  for  a  child  of  seven  or  eight  to 
handle  a  difficult  problem  in  the  Talmud,  a  pre¬ 
cocity  characteristic  to  this  day  of  the  children  hail¬ 
ing  from  Slavonic  countries.  Their  'illuyim  (prodi¬ 
gies)  might  furnish  ample  material  for  more  than 
one  volume  of  les  enfants  celebres. 

Nor  were  the  children  of  the  poor  left  to  grow  up 
in  ignorance.  Learning  was  free,  to  be  had  for  the 
asking.  More  than  this,  stringent  measures  were 
taken  that  no  child  be  without  instruction.  Talmud 
Torahs  were  founded  even  in  the  smallest  kehillot 
(communities),  and  the  students  were  supplied,  not 
only  with  books,  but  also  with  the  necessaries  of 
life.  Communal  and  individual  benefactors  fur¬ 
nished  clothes,  and  every  member  (ba'al  ha-bayit) 
had  to  provide  food  and  lodging  for  an  indigent 
pupil  at  least  one  day  of  each  week.  The  “  Frei- 
tisch  ”  (free  board)  was  an  inseparable  adjunct  to 
every  school.  Poor  young  men  were  not  regarded 

47 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


as  “  beggar  students.”  They  were  looked  upon  as 
earning  their  living  by  study,  even  as  teachers  by 
instructing.  To  pray  for  the  dead  or  the  living  in 
return  for  their  support  is  a  recent  innovation,  and 
mostly  among  other  than  Slavonic  Jews.  It  is  a 
custom  adopted  from  medieval  Christianity,  and 
practiced  in  England  by  the  poor  student,  who,  in 
the  words  of  Chaucer, 

Busily  ’gan  for  the  souls  to  pray 

On  them  that  gave  him  wherewith  to  scolay. 

For  a  faithful  and  vivid  description  of  the  yeshi- 
bot  we  cannot  do  better  than  transcribe  the  account 
given  in  the  pages  of  the  little  pamphlet  Yeven 
Mezulahf  in  which  Nathan  Hannover,  mentioned 
above,  has  left  us  a  reliable  history  of  the  Cossack 
uprisings  and  the  Kulturgeschichte  of  his  own  time. 

I  need  bring  no  proof  for  the  statement  that  nowhere  was  the 
study  of  the  Law  so  universal  as  in  Russo-Poland.  In  every  com¬ 
munity  there  was  a  well-paid  dean  (rosh  yeshibah),  who,  exempt 
from  worry  about  a  livelihood,  devoted  himself  exclusively  to 
teaching  and  studying  by  day  and  by  night.  In  every  kahal, 
many  youths,  maintained  liberally,  studied  under  the  guidance  of 
the  dean.  In  turn,  they  instructed  the  less  advanced,  who  were 
also  supported  by  the  community.  A  kahal  of  fifty  [families]  had 
to  provide  for  at  least  thirty  such.  They  boarded  and  lodged  in 
the  homes  of  their  patrons,  and  frequently  received  pocket-money 
in  addition.  Thus  there  was  hardly  a  house  in  which  the  Torah 

48 


THE  PRE-HASKALAH  PERIOD 

was  not  studied,  either  by  the  master  of  the  house,  a  son,  a 
son-in-law,  or  a  student  stranger.  They  always  bore  in  mind  the 
dictum  of  Rabba,  “  He  who  loves  scholars  will  have  scholarly 
sons;  he  who  welcomes  scholars  will  have  scholarly  sons-in-law; 
he  who  admires  scholars  will  become  learned  himself.”  No 
wonder,  then,  that  every  community  swarmed  with  scholars,  that 
out  of  every  fifty  of  its  members  at  least  twenty  were  far  ad¬ 
vanced,  and  had  the  morenu  ( i .  e.  bachelor)  degree. 

The  dean  was  vested  with  absolute  authority.  He  could  punish 
an  offender,  whether  rich  or  poor.  Everybody  respected  him,  and 
he  often  received  gifts  of  money  or  valuables.  In  all  religious 
processions  he  came  first.  Then  followed  the  students,  then  the 
learned,  and  the  rest  of  the  congregation  brought  up  the  rear. 
This  veneration  for  the  dean  prompted  many  a  youth  to  imitate 
his  example,  and  thus  our  country  was  rendered  full  of  the 
knowledge  of  the  Law. 

What  became  of  the  students  when  they  were 
graduated?  Let  us  turn  once  more  to  Hannover’s 
interesting  narrative.  The  “  fairs”  of  those  days 
were  much  more  than  opportunities  for  barter ;  they 
afforded  favorable  and  attractive  occasions  for 
other  objects.  Zaslav  and  Yaroslav  during  the 
summer,  Lemberg  and  Lublin  in  the  winter,  were 
“  filled  with  hundreds  of  deans  and  thousands  of 
students,”  and  one  who  had  a  marriageable  daugh¬ 
ter  had  but  to  resort  thither  to  have  his  worries 
allayed.  Therefore,  “  Jews  and  Jewesses  attended 
these  bazaars  in  magnificent  attire,  and  [each  sea- 

49 


4 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

son]  several  hundred,  sometimes  as  many  as  a  thou¬ 
sand,  alliances  were  consummated.” 

That  the  rabbi,  living  in  a  strange  land  and  re¬ 
calling  a  glorious  past,  should  have  indulged  in  a 
bit  of  exaggeration  in  his  sorrowful  retrospect,  is 
not  more  than  natural;  and  that  his  picture  on  the 
whole  is  true  is  proved  by  similar  schools  which 
existed  in  Russia  till  recently.  The  descriptions  of 
these  institutions  by  Smolenskin  as  well  as  writers 
of  less  repute  are  graphic  and  intensely  interesting. 
They  constituted  a  unique  world,  in  which  the  Jew¬ 
ish  youth  lived  and  moved  until  he  reached  man’s 
estate.  In  later  years,  when  Russian  Jewry  became 
infected,  so  to  speak,  with  the  Aufklarungs-bacilli, 
they  became  the  nurseries  of  the  new  learning.  But 
in  the  earlier  time,  too,  a  spirit  of  enlightenment 
pervaded  them.  The  study  of  the  Talmud  fostered 
in  them  was  regarded  both  as  a  religious  duty  and 
as  a  means  to  an  end,  the  rabbinate.  Even  in  the 
Middle  Ages  Aristotle  was  a  favorite  with  the  older 
students,  and  Solomon  Luria  complained  that  in  the 
prayer  books  of  many  of  them  he  had  noticed  the 
prayer  of  Aristotle,  for  which  he  blamed  the  liberal 
views  of  Moses  Isserles! 40 

Another  typically,  though  not  exclusively,  Sla¬ 
vonic  Jewish  institution  was  the  study-hall,  or  bet 

50 


THE  PRE-HASKALAH  PERIOD 


ha-midrash.  As  the  synagogues  gradually  became 
Schulen  (schools),  so,  by  a  contrary  process,  the 
bet  ha-midrash  assumed  the  function  of  a  house  of 
prayer.  Its  uniqueness  it  has  retained  to  this  day. 
It  was  at  once  a  library,  a  reading-room,  and  a  class¬ 
room;  yet  those  who  frequented  it  were  bound  by 
the  rigorous  laws  of  none  of  the  three.  There  were 
no  restrictions  as  to  when,  or  what,  or  how  one 
should  study.  It  was  a  place  in  which  originality 
was  admired  and  research  encouraged.  As  at  a 
Spartan  feast,  youth  and  age  commingled,  men  of 
all  ages  and  diverse  attainments  exchanged  views, 
and  all  benefited  by  mutual  contact. 

Those  whose  position  precluded  devotion  to 
study  availed  themselves  at  least  of  the  means  for 
mutual  improvement  at  their  disposal.  They  or¬ 
ganized  societies  for  the  study  of  certain  branches 
of  Jewish  lore,  and  for  the  meetings  of  these  socie¬ 
ties  the  busiest  spared  time  and  the  poorest  put  aside 
his  work.  It  was  a  people  composed  of  scholars 
and  those  who  maintained  scholars,  and  the  schol¬ 
ars,  in  dress  and  appearance,  represented  the  aris¬ 
tocracy,  an  aristocracy  of  the  intellect.41 

Such  was  the  pre-Haskalah  period.  From  the 
meagre  data  at  our  disposal  we  are  justified  in  con¬ 
cluding,  that,  left  undisturbed,  the  Slavonic  Jews 

51 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

would  have  evolved  a  civilization  rivalling,  if  not 
surpassing,  that  of  the  golden  era  of  the  Spanish 
Jews.  But  this  was  not  to  be.  Their  onward  march 
met  a  sudden  and  terrific  check.  Hetman  Chmiel- 
nicki  at  the  head  of  his  savage  hordes  of  Russians 
and  Tatars  conquered  the  Poles,  and  Jews  and 
Catholics  were  subjected  to  the  most  inhuman  treat¬ 
ment.  The  descendants  of  those  who,  in  1090,  had 
escaped  the  Crusaders  fell  victims  in  1648  to  the 
more  cruel  Cossacks.  About  half  a  million  Jews, 
it  is  estimated,  lost  their  lives  in  Chmielnicki’s  hor¬ 
rible  massacres.  The  few  communities  remaining 
were  utterly  demoralized.  The  education  of  the 
young  was  neglected,  both  sacred  and  secular 
branches  of  study  were  abandoned.  And  when  the 
storm  calmed  down,  they  found  themselves  de¬ 
prived  of  the  accumulations  of  centuries,  forced, 
like  Noah  after  the  deluge,  but  without  his  means, 
to  start  again  from  the  very  beginning.  Indeed,  as 
Levinsohn  remarks,  the  wonder  is  that,  despite  the 
fiendish  persecution  they  endured,  these  unfortu¬ 
nates  should  have  preserved  a  spark  of  love  of 
knowledge.  Yet  a  little  later  it  was  to  burst  into 
flame  again  and  bring  light  and  warmth  to  hearts 
crushed  by  “  man’s  inhumanity  to  man.” 

[Notes,  pp.  305-310.] 

52 


CHAPTER  II 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION 

1648-1794 

The  storm  of  persecution  that  had  been  brewing 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  and  which  burst  in  all  its 
fury  by  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  was 
allayed  but  little  by  the  rivers  of  blood  that  streamed 
over  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  Slavonic  land. 
Half  a  million  Jewish  victims  were  not  sufficient  to 
satisfy  the  followers  of  a  religion  of  love.  They 
only  whetted  their  insatiable  appetite.  The  anarchy 
among  the  Gentiles  increased  the  misery  of  the 
Jews.  The  towns  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Lith¬ 
uanians,  Poles,  Russians,  and  Tatars  successively, 
and  it  was  upon  the  Jews  that  the  hounds  of  war 
were  let  loose  at  each  defeat  or  conquest.  Deter¬ 
mined  to  exterminate  each  other,  they  joined  forces 
in  exterminating  the  Jews.  When  Bratzlav,  for 
instance,  was  destroyed  by  the  Tatars,  in  1479,  more 
than  four  hundred  of  its  six  hundred  Jewish  citizens 
were  slain.  When  the  city  was  attacked  by  the  Cos- 

53 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

sacks  in  1569,  the  greater  number  of  the  plundered 
and  murdered  were  Jews.  The  same  happened 
when  Chmielnicki  gained  the  upper  hand  in  Bratz- 
lav  in  1648,  again  when  the  Russians  slaughtered 
all  the  inhabitants  in  1664,  and  when  the  Tatars 
plotted  against  their  victorious  enemy,  Peter  the 
Great.1  Swedish  attacks  without  and  popular  upris¬ 
ings  within  rendered  the  Polish  pan  (dubbed  among 
Jews  poriz,  rowdy  or  ruffian)  as  reckless  as  he  was 
irresponsible.  The  Jew  became  for  him  a  sponge 
to  be  squeezed  for  money,  and  a  clown  to  contribute 
to  his  brutal  amusements.  The  subtle  and  baneful 
influence  of  the  Jesuits  succeeded,  besides,  in  intro¬ 
ducing  religion  into  politics  and  making  the  Jew  the 
scapegoat  for  the  evils  of  both.  The  Judaeus 
infidelis  was  the  target  of  abuse  and  persecution. 
It  was  only  the  fear  that  the  Government’s  ex¬ 
chequer  might  suffer  that  prevented  his  being  turned 
into  a  veritable  slave.  His  condition,  indeed,  was 
worse  than  slavery;  his  life  was  worth  less  than  a 
beast’s.  It  was  frequently  taken  for  the  mere  fun  of 
it,  and  with  impunity.  An  overseer  once  ordered 
all  Jewish  mothers  living  on  the  estate  to  climb  to 
the  tree-tops  and  leave  their  little  ones  below.  He 
then  fired  at  the  children,  and  when  the  women  fell 
from  the  trees  at  the  horrible  sight,  he  presented 

54 


* 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION 


each  with  a  piece  of  money,  and  thanked  them  for 
the  pleasure  they  had  afforded  him.3 

In  the  cities,  though  the  pan’s  excesses  were 
bound  to  be  somewhat  bridled  there,  the  lot  of  the 
Jews  was  equally  gloomy.  They  were  treated  like 
outlaws,  were  forbidden  to  engage  in  all  but  a  few 
branches  of  trade  or  handicraft,  or  to  live  with 
Christians,  or  employ  them  as  servants.  In  1720 
they  were  prohibited  to  build  new  synagogues  or 
even  repair  the  old  ones.  Sometimes  the  synagogues 
were  locked  “  by  order  of  ...  ”  until  a  stipulated 
amount  of  money  bought  permission  to  reopen 
them.  We  of  to-day  can  hardly  imagine  what  pain 
a  Jew  of  that  time  experienced  when  he  hastened 
to  the  house  of  God  on  one  of  the  great  Holy  Days 
only  to  find  its  doors  closed  by  the  police ! 

Their  status  was  no  better  in  Lithuania  and  Great 
Russia.  The  accession  of  Ivan  IV,  the  Terrible 
( I533’1 584)>  dealt  their  former  comparative  pros¬ 
perity  a  blow  from  which  it  has  not  recovered  to 
this  day.  As  if  to  remove  the  impression  of  liberal¬ 
ism  made  by  his  predecessor  and  obliterate  from 
memory  his  amicable  relations  with  Doctor  Leo,  de 
Guizolfi,  and  Chozi  Kolos,  this  monster  czar,  with 
the  fiendishness  of  a  Caligula,  but  lacking  the  ac¬ 
complishments  of  his  heathen  prototype,  delighted 

55 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

to  invent  tortures  for  inoffensive  Jews.  He  expelled 
them  from  Moscow,  and  deprived  them  of  the 
right  of  travel  from  place  to  place.  During  his 
occupancy  of  Polotsk  he  ordered  all  Jews  residing 
there  either  to  become  converts  to  Greek  Catholi¬ 
cism  or  choose  between  being  drowned  in  the  Dwina 
and  burnt  at  the  stake. 

But  even  the  removal  of  the  terrible  czar  and  the 
dawn  of  the  century  of  reason  and  humanitarianism 
failed  to  effect  a  change  for  the  better  in  the  condi¬ 
tion  of  the  Slavonic  Jews.  For  a  while  it  appeared 
as  if  the  Zeitgeist  might  penetrate  even  into  Russo- 
Poland,  and  the  Renaissance  and  the  Reformation 
would  not  pass  over  the  eastern  portion  of  Europe 
without  beneficent  results.  In  Lithuania  Calvinism 
threatened  to  oust  Catholicism,  science  and  culture 
began  to  be  pursued,  and  Jewish  and  Gentile  chil¬ 
dren  attended  the  same  schools.  The  successors  of 
Ivan  IV  were  men  of  better  breeding,  and  the 
praiseworthy  attempts  of  Peter  the  Great  to  intro¬ 
duce  Western  civilization  are  known  to  all.8  But 
Slavonic  soil  has  never  been  susceptible  to  the  ele¬ 
vating  influences  that  have  transformed  the  rest  of 
Europe.  Every  reformatory  effort  was  nipped  in 
the  bud.  The  lot  of  the  Jews  accordingly  grew 
from  bad  to  worse.  In  1727  they  were  expelled 

56 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION 


from  the  Ukraine  and  other  provinces,  and  they 
were  recalled,  “  for  the  benefit  of  the  citizens,”  only 
at  the  instance  of  Apostol,  the  hetman  of  the  very 
Cossacks  that  had  massacred  them  in  1648.  Baruch 
Leibov  was  burned  alive  in  St.  Petersburg,  in  1738, 
for  having  dared  “  insult  the  Christian  religion  by 
building  a  synagogue  in  the  village  of  Zvyerovichi,” 
an  offence  that  was  aggravated  by  the  suspicion  that 
he  had  converted  the  Russian  Captain  Vosnitzin 
to  Judaism.  The  same  fate  was,  in  1783,  meted 
out  to  Moses,  a  Jewish  tailor,  for  refusing  to  accept 
Christianity,  and  in  1790  a  Jew  was  quartered  in 
Grodno,  though  the  king  had  declined  to  sign  his 
death  warrant.  In  some  places  Jews  had  to  con¬ 
tribute  towards  the  maintenance  of  churches,  and 
in  Slutsk  the  law,  enacted  there  in  17 66,  remains 
unrevoked  to  this  day.  Elizabeta  Petrovna  did  not 
imitate  Ivan  III.  When  she  discovered  that  San¬ 
chez,  her  physician,  was  of  the  Jewish  persuasion, 
she  discharged  him  without  notice,  after  eighteen 
years  of  faithful  service.  Similarly,  when  the  Li¬ 
vonian  merchants  remonstrated,  maintaining  that 
the  exclusion  of  Jews  from  their  fairs  was  fraught 
with  disastrous  consequences  to  the  commerce  of  the 
country,  she  is  reported  to  have  replied,  “  From  the 
enemies  of  Christ  I  will  not  receive  even  a  benefit.”  4 


57 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

But  worse  things  were  yet  to  come,  the  worst 
since  Chmielnicki’s  massacres.  The  bitterness  of 
both  Poles  and  Russians  against  the  Jews  grew  espe¬ 
cially  intense  as  the  days  of  the  rozbior,  the  Parti¬ 
tion  of  Poland,  drew  near  (1794).  The  Poles, 
forgetting  the  many  examples  of  loyalty  and  self- 
sacrifice  shown  by  Jews  in  times  of  peace  and  war, 
suspected  them  of  being  treacherous  and  unreliable ; 
while  the  Russians,  though  denying  the  patriotism 
of  their  own  Jews,  persisted  in  the  accusation  that 
Polish  Jews  spent  money  lavishly  in  fomenting 
rebellion  and  anarchy.  The  pupils  of  the  Jesuits 
found  great  delight  in  attacks  upon  the  Jews,  which 
frequently  culminated  in  riot  and  bloodshed  and  the 
payment  of  money  by  Jews  to  Catholic  institutions. 
“  What  appalling  spectacles,”  exclaims  a  Christian 
writer,  “  must  we  witness  in  the  capital  [Warsaw] 
on  solemn  holidays.  Students  and  even  adults  in 
noisy  mobs  assault  the  Jews,  and  sometimes  beat 
them  with  sticks.  We  have  seen  a  gang  waylay  a 
Jew,  stop  his  horses,  and  strike  him  till  he  fell  from 
the  wagon.  How  can  we  look  with  indifference  on 
such  a  survival  of  barbarism?  ”  The  commonest 
manifestations  of  hatred  and  superstition,  however, 
were,  as  in  other  countries,  the  charge  that  Jews 
were  magicians,  using  the  black  art  to  avenge  them- 

58 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION 


selves  on  their  persecutors,  and  that  they  used 
Christian  blood  for  their  observance  of  the  Pass- 
over.  The  latter  crime,  the  imputing  of  which  was 
sternly  prohibited  by  an  edict  of  the  liberal  Bathory, 
in  1576,  was  so  frequently  laid  at  their  door,  that 
in  the  short  period  of  sixty  years  ( 1700-1760)  not 
less  than  twenty  such  accusations  were  brought 
against  them,  ending  each  time  in  the  massacre  of 
Jews  by  infuriated  mobs.  Even  more  shocking,  if 
possible,  was  the  frequent  extermination  of  whole 
communities  by  the  brigand  bands  known  as  Haida- 
macks.  They  added  the  “  Massacre  of  Uman  ” 
(1768)  to  the  Jewish  calendar  of  misfortunes,  the 
most  terrible  slaughter,  equalled,  perhaps,  only  by 
that  of  Nemirov  in  1648. 5 

That  all  this  should  have  left  a  marked  impres¬ 
sion  on  the  mentality  and  intellectuality  of  the  Jews, 
is  little  to  be  wondered  at.  The  marvel  is  that  they 
should  have  maintained  their  superiority  over  their 
surroundings,  and  continued  to  be  a  law-abiding  and 
God-fearing  people.  While  among  the  Russians 
and  Poles  the  nobles  who  learned  to  read  or  write 
formed  a  rare  exception,  there  was  hardly  one  among 
the  Jews,  the  very  lowliest  of  them,  who  could  not 
read  Hebrew,  and  even  translate  it  into  the  ver¬ 
nacular.  Maimon  tells  us  that  in  his  early  youth 

59 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

he  became  the  family  tutor  of  “  a  miserable  farmer 
in  a  still  more  miserable  village,”  who  yet  was  ambi¬ 
tious  of  giving  his  children  an  education  of  some 
kind. 

Fortunately  for  the  Jews  of  those  times — says  a  writer — their 
civilization  was  by  far  superior  to  that  of  the  Christians.  The 
rabbi,  though  in  no  way  inferior  to  the  priest  mentally,  was 
immeasurably  above  him  morally.  The  students  of  the  yeshibot, 
despite  their  exclusive  devotion  to  the  study  of  the  Talmud,  yet 
were  better  equipped  for  intellectual  work,  were  of  broader  minds 
and  better  manners,  than  the  pupils  of  the  Jesuits.  And  the 
Jewish  ba'ale  battim,  with  an  education  as  good  as  that  of  the 
Gentile  shlyakhta,  had  a  more  ennobling  and  elevating  object  in 
life.6 

It  Is  remarkable  how  quickly  they  recuperated 
from  the  blows  they  received.  In  1648  thousands 
of  people  were  killed,  whole  communities  exter¬ 
minated,  Volhynia,  Podolia,  and  a  great  part  of 
Lithuania  utterly  ruined.  In  1660,  in  those  very 
places,  we  hear  again  of  Jewish  settlements,  with 
synagogues  and  schools  and  a  system  of  education 
of  the  kind  described  in  the  preceding  chapter,  and 
we  hear  of  the  Council  of  Lithuania  struggling  to 
re-establish  and  cement  the  shattered  foundation  of 
their  self-government.  Yet  all  their  efforts  im¬ 
proved  the  demoralized  condition  of  the  country  but 

60 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION 

little.  As  always  in  national  crises,  the  individual 
was  sacrificed  to  the  community,  and  deprived  of 
the  few  rights  remaining  to  him.  The  kehillot  be¬ 
came  brutally  oppressive.  There  were  no  longer 
men  of  the  stamp  of  Abraham  Rapoport,  Solomon 
Luria,  Mordecai  Jaffe,  and  Meir  Katz,  to  put  their 
feet  on  the  neck  of  tyranny.  Without  special  per¬ 
mission  no  one  could  buy  or  sell,  or  move  from  one 
place  to  another,  or  learn  a  trade  or  practice  a  pro¬ 
fession.  Rabbinism  became  synonymous  with  rigor¬ 
ism,  the  coercion  of  untold  customs  became  unbear¬ 
able,  and  the  spirit  of  Judaism  was  lost  in  a  heap  of 
innumerable  rites.  The  Jew’s  every  act  had  to  be 
sanctioned  by  religion.  He  knew  of  the  outward 
world  only  from  the  heavy  taxes  he  paid  in  order  to 
be  allowed  to  exist,  and  from  the  bloody  riots  with 
which  his  people  was  frequently  visited. 

What  could  result  from  such  a  state  of  affairs  but 
poverty,  material  and  spiritual,  with  all  the  suffer¬ 
ing  it  engenders  ?  Those  at  the  head  of  the  kehillot, 
being  responsible  solely  to  the  Government,  often 
had  to  deliver  the  full  tale  of  bricks  like  the  Jewish 
overseers  in  Egypt,  though  no  straw  was  given  to 
them.  On  one  occasion  Rabbi  Mikel  of  Shkud  was 
arrested  because  the  kahal  could  not  pay  the  thou¬ 
sand  gulden  it  owed.  In  1767,  the  whole  kahal  of 

61 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

Vilna  went  to  Warsaw  to  protest  against  intolerable 
taxation.  Such  protests  were  usually  of  little  avail. 
On  the  other  hand,  a  few  powerful  families  throve 
at  the  expense  of  their  oppressed  coreligionists. 
This  aroused  a  spirit  of  animosity  and  a  clamor  for 
the  abolition  of  the  kahal  institution.  Jewish  auton¬ 
omy  was  more  and  more  encroached  upon.  Rab¬ 
binates  were  bought  and  sold,  and  the  aid  of  the 
Government  was  invoked  in  religious  controversies. 
A  question  regarding  the  preferable  form  of  prayer 
was  submitted  to  the  decision  of  Paul  I.  In  1777, 
Prince  Radziwill  decided  who  should  officiate  as 
rabbi  in  so  important  a  centre  of  Judaism  as  Vilna,1 
and  in  1804  the  Government  issued  a  “  regula¬ 
tion  ”  depriving  the  kahal  of  its  judicial  functions 
altogether. 

What  was  even  more  disastrous  was  the  spiritual 
poverty  of  the  masses.  Seldom  have  the  awful  warn¬ 
ings  of  the  great  lawgiver  been  fulfilled  so  literally 
as  during  the  eighteenth  century: 

And  upon  them  that  remain  of  you,  I  will  send  a  faintness  into 
their  hearts  in  the  land  of  their  enemies;  and  the  sound  of  a 
shaken  leaf  shall  chase  them;  and  they  shall  flee  as  fleeing  from  a 
sword ;  and  they  shall  fall,  when  none  pursueth.  And  they  shall 
fall  one  upon  another,  as  it  were  before  a  sword,  when  none 

62 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION 


pursueth:  and  ye  shall  have  no  power  to  stand  before  your 
enemies  (Lev.  26:  36-37). 

But  the  Lord  shall  give  thee  there  a  trembling  heart,  and  fail¬ 
ing  of  eyes,  and  sorrow  of  mind.  And  thy  life  shall  hang  in 
doubt  before  thee;  and  thou  shalt  fear  day  and  night,  and  thou 
shalt  have  none  assurance  of  thy  life  (Deut.  29:  65-66). 

Having  learned  from  sad  experience  that  there 
was  no  crime  their  foes  were  incapable  of  perpetrat¬ 
ing,  they  gave  credence  to  every  rumor  as  to  an 
established  fact.  A  report  that  boys  and  girls  were 
to  be  prohibited  from  marrying  before  a  certain 
age  resulted  in  behalot  (panics) ,  during  which  chil¬ 
dren  of  the  tenderest  ages  were  united  as  husband 
and  wife  (1754,  1764,  1793).  Mysticism  became 
rampant.  “  Messiah  ”  after  u  Messiah  ”  “  re¬ 
vealed  ”  himself  as  the  one  promised  to  redeem 
Israel  from  all  his  troubles.  Love  of  God  began 
to  be  tinged  with  fear  of  the  devil,  and  incantations 
to  take  the  place  of  religious  belief.  The  Zohar 
and  works  full  of  superstition,  such  as  the  Kab  ha - 
Yashar,  Midrash  Talpiyot,  and  Nishmat  Hayyim, 
the  first  studied  by  men,  the  others  by  both  sexes, 
but  mostly  by  women,  prepared  their  minds  for 
all  sorts  of  mongrel  beliefs.  “  In  no  land,”  savs 
Tobias  Cohn,  “  is  the  practice  of  summoning  up 
devils  and  spirits  by  means  of  the  Cabbalistic 

63 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

abracadabra  so  prevalent,  and  the  belief  in  dreams 
and  visions  so  strong,  as  in  Poland.”  8  All  this, 
though  it  strengthened  religious  fervor  in  some, 
undermined  it  in  others.  Sects  came  into  being, 
struggled,  and,  having  brought  added  misery  upon 
their  followers,  disappeared.  Jewish  criminals  es¬ 
caped  justice  by  invoking  the  power  of  the  Catholic 
priesthood  and  promising  to  become  converted  to 
Christianity.9  And  now  and  then  even  Talmudists 
left  the  fold,  as,  for  instance,  Carl  Anton,  the  Cour- 
land  pupil  of  Eybeschiitz,  who  became  professor  of 
Plebrew  at  Hamsted,  and  wrote  numerous  works 
on  Judaism.  Others  hoped  to  win  the  favor  of  the 
Gentiles  by  preaching  a  mixture  of  Judaism  and 
Catholicism.  In  many  places,  especially  in  the 
Ukraine,  the  seat  of  learning  that  had  suffered  most 
from  the  ravages  of  the  Cossacks,  the  state  of 
morals  sank  very  low,  owing  to  the  teaching  of 
Jacob  Querido,  the  self-proclaimed  son  of  the 
pseudo-Messiah  Shabbatai  Zebi,  “  that  the  sinful¬ 
ness  of  the  world  can  be  overcome  only  by  a  super¬ 
abundance  of  sin.”  This  paved  the  way  for  the  last 
of  the  long  list  of  Messiahs,  Jacob  ( Yankev  Leibo- 
vich)  Frank  of  Podolia.  His  experiences,  adven¬ 
tures,  and  hairbreadth  escapes,  his  entire  career, 
beginning  with  his  return  from  his  travels  in  Tur- 

64 


ISAAC  BAR  LEVINSOHN 

1788-1860 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION 


key,  through  his  conversion  to  Catholicism  ( 1759) > 
to  the  day  of  his  death  as  “  Baron  von  Offenbach,” 
would  furnish  material  for  a  stirring  drama.  As 
if  to  counteract  this  demoralizing  tendency,  a  new 
sect,  known  as  Hasidim,  originating  in  Lithuania 
and  headed  by  Judah  Hasid  of  Dubno  and  Hayyim 
Malak,  taught  its  devotees  to  hasten  the  advent 
of  the  Messiah  by  doing  penance  for  the  sins  of 
Israel.  They  were  so  firmly  convinced  of  the 
efficacy  of  fasts  and  prayers  that  they  went  to  Jeru¬ 
salem  by  hundreds  to  witness  the  impending  re¬ 
demption  ( ab.  1706).  But  the  ascetic  Hasidim  and 
the  epicurean  Frankists  were  alike  doomed  to  dis¬ 
appear  or  to  be  swallowed  up  by  a  new  Hasidism, 
combining  the  teachings  and  aspirations  of  both, 
the  sect  founded  by  Israel  Baal  Shem,  or  Besht  (ab. 
1698-1759),  and  fully  developed  by  Bar  of  Mes- 
eritz  and  Jacob  Joseph  of  Polonnoy. 

Time  was  when  all  writers  on  the  subject,  usually 
Maskilim,  thought  it  their  duty  to  cast  a  stone  at 
Hasidism.  They  described  it  as  a  Chinese  wall 
shutting  the  Jews  in  and  shutting  the  world  out. 
It  is  becoming  more  and  more  plainly  recognized 
and  admitted,  that  it  was,  in  reality,  an  attempt  at 
reform  rendered  imperative  by  the  tyranny  of  the 
kahal,  the  rigorism  of  the  rabbis*  the  supercilious- 

65 


5 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

ness  of  the  learned  classes,  and  the  superstition  of 
the  masses.  Its  aim  was  to  bring  about  a  deep  psy¬ 
chologic  improvement,  to  change  not  so  much  the 
belief  as  the  believer.  It  insisted  on  purity  rather 
than  profundity  of  thought.  Unable  to  remove  the 
galling  yoke,  it  gave  strength  to  its  wearers  by  pro¬ 
hibiting  sadness  and  asceticism,  and  emphasizing 
joy  and  fellowship  as  important  elements  in  the 
fabric  of  its  theology. 

Hasidism  was  thus  a  plant  the  seeds  of  which 
had  been  sown  by  the  various  sects.  Like  the  for¬ 
mer  Hasidim,  or  even  the  Assideans  of  nearly  two 
thousand  years  before,  their  latter-day  namesakes 
rigidly  adhered  to  the  laws  of  Levitical  purification, 
and,  to  a  certain  extent,  led  a  communistic  life.  In 
addition  they  accepted,  in  a  modified  form,  certain 
customs  and  beliefs  of  the  Catholic  church  that  had 
been  adopted  by  the  followers  of  Frank.  The 
prayers  to  the  saints  (zaddikim) ,  the  conception  of 
faith  as  the  fountain  of  salvation,  even  the  belief  in 
a  trinity  consisting  of  the  Godhead,  the  Shekinah, 
and  the  Holy  Ghost,  these  and  other  exotic  doc¬ 
trines  introduced  by  the  Cabbala  took  root  and  grew 
in  the  vineyard  of  Hasidism.10 

The  founder  of  the  sect  has  an  interesting  history. 
In  his  childhood  he  gave  no  evidence  of  future 

66 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION 

greatness.  His  education  was  of  a  low  order,  but 
his  feeling  heart  and  sympathetic  soul  won  him 
the  esteem  of  all  that  knew  him.  The  woods  pos¬ 
sessed  the  same  charm  for  him  as  for  Wordsworth 
or  Whitman.  With  the  latter  especially  he  seems 
to  have  much  in  common.  While  a  child,  he  ab¬ 
sented  himself  frequently  from  the  narrow  and 
noisy  heder,  and  spent  the  day  in  the  quiet  of  the 
neighboring  woods.  When  he  grew  up,  he  accepted 
the  menial  position  of  a  school  usher.  His  office  was 
to  go  from  house  to  house,  arouse  the  sleeping  chil¬ 
dren,  dress  them,  and  bring  them  to  heder.  But  the 
time  soon  came  when  humble  and  obscure  Israel 
“  revealed  ”  himself  to  the  world.  Owing  to  his 
tact  and  knowledge  of  human  nature,  combined  with 
the  conditions  of  the  times,  his  teachings  spread 
rapidly.  He  was  speedily  crowned  with  the  glory 
of  a  “  good  name  ”  (Baal  Shem  Tob),  and  in  the 
end  he  was  immortalized. 

From  such  a  man  we  can  expect  only  originality, 
not  profundity.  Indeed,  his  whole  life  was  a  pro¬ 
test  against  the  subtleties  of  the  Talmudists  and  the 
ceremonies,  meaningless  to  him,  which  they  intro¬ 
duced  into  Judaism.  His  object  was  to  remove  the 
petrified  rabbinical  restrictions  (gezerot)  and  de¬ 
velop  the  emotional  side  of  the  Jew  in  their  stead. 

67 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

He  was  primarily  a  man  of  action,  and  had  little 
love  for  the  rabbis,  their  passivity,  world-weariness, 
and  pride  of  intellect.  It  is  said  that  when  he 
“  overheard  the  sounds  of  eager,  loud  discussions 
issuing  from  a  rabbinical  college,  closing  his  ears 
with  his  hands,  [he]  declared  that  it  was  such  dis¬ 
putants  who  delayed  the  redemption  of  Israel  from 
captivity.”  Men  like  these,  who  study  the  Law  for 
the  sake  of  knowing,  not  of  feeling,  cannot  claim 
any  merit  for  it.  They  deserve  to  be  called  “  Jew¬ 
ish  devils.”  Only  he  is  worthy  of  reward  who  is 
virtuous  rather  than  innocent,  who  does  what  he  is 
afraid  to  do,  who,  as  Jacob  Joseph  of  Polonnoy  puts 
it,  “  acquires  evil  thoughts  and  converts  them  into 
holy  ones.”  No  asceticism  for  him.  All  kinds  of 
human  feelings  deserve  our  respect,  for  it  is  not  the 
body  that  feels  but  the  soul,  and  the  soul,  “  being  a 
part  of  God  on  high,  cannot  possibly  have  an  abso¬ 
lutely  bad  tendency.”  Men  may  not  be  heresy- 
hunters  and  fault-finders,  for  none  is  free  from 
heresy  and  faults  himself:  the  face  he  brings  to  the 
mirror,  he  finds  reflected  in  it.  Yea,  even  the  fol¬ 
lowers  of  Abraham  possess  evil  propensities,  and 
noble  qualities  frequently  belong  to  the  disciples  of 
Balaam  himself.11 

These  democratic  principles  put  the  most  igno- 

68 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION 


rant  Jew  in  Russia  on  an  equality  with  the  erudite 
Lithuanian.  No  wonder  that  they  obtained  such 
strong  hold  on  the  people  of  the  Ukraine,  the  prov¬ 
ince  shorn  of  all  its  glory.  Hasidism  invaded 
Podolia  and  Volhynia,  swept  over  Galicia  and  Hun¬ 
gary,  and  found  adherents  even  in  many  a  large 
community  in  Western  Russia  and  Prussia.  It 
brought  cheer  and  happiness  in  its  wake,  and  ren¬ 
dered  the  unfortunate  Jew  forgetful  of  his  misery. 
Gottlober  maintains  that  the  inspiring  melodies  of 
the  Hasidic  hymns  were  largely  responsible  for  the 
spread  of  the  movement,  even  as  Moody  attributed 
the  success  of  his  revivals  to  the  singing  of  Sankey. 
For,  as  Doctor  Schechter  has  it,  “  the  Besht  was  a 
religious  revivalist  in  the  best  sense,  full  of  burning 
faith  in  his  God  and  his  cause;  convinced  of  the 
value  of  his  teaching  and  his  truth.”  12 

One  province  there  was  to  which  the  Besht  could 
not  penetrate,  at  least  not  without  a  long  siege  and 
great  losses.  In  Lithuania  the  inroads  of  Hasidism 
were  strenuously  opposed,  and  its  advance  disputed 
step  by  step.  The  Lithuanian  Jews,  to  whom  the 
Talmud  was  as  dear  as  ever,  could  not  countenance 
a  movement  sprung,  as  they  believed,  from  the  seed 
sown  by  Shabbatai  Zebi,  an  opponent  of  the  Tal¬ 
mud,  and  by  Jacob  Frank,  at  whose  instigation  the 

69 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

Bishop  of  Kamenetz  ordered  the  Talmud  to  be 
publicly  burnt.13 

The  opponents  (Mitnaggedim)  of  Hasidism 
were  headed  by  a  leader  who  was  as  typical  an  ex¬ 
ponent  of  the  cause  he  espoused  as  the  Besht  was 
of  his.  Among  the  students  of  Jewish  literature 
since  the  close  of  the  Talmud,  few  have  surpassed, 
or  even  equalled,  Elijah  of  Vilna  (1720-1797). 
Not  inappropriately  he  was  called  Gaon  and  Hasid, 
for  in  mental  and  moral  attainments  he  was  unique 
in  his  generation.  As  the  Besht  was  noted  in  his 
early  life  for  dulness  and  indifference,  so  Elijah  was 
remarkable  for  diligence  and  versatility.  His  life, 
like  the  Besht’s,  became  the  nucleus  of  many  won¬ 
derful  tales,  which  his  biographer  narrates  with 
painstaking  exactness.  They  present  the  picture  of 
a  man  diametrically  different  from  Israel  Baal 
Shem  Tob.  Every  year,  we  are  told,  added  to  the 
marvellous  development  of  the  young  intellectual 
giant.  When  he  was  six  years  old,  none  but  Rabbi 
Moses  Margolioth,  the  renowned  Talmudist  and 
author,  was  competent  enough  to  teach  him.  At 
seven,  he  worsted  the  chief  rabbi  of  his  native  city 
in  a  Talmudic  discussion.  At  nine,  there  was  noth¬ 
ing  in  Jewish  literature  with  which  he  was  not 
familiar,  and  he  turned  to  other  studies  to  satisfy 

70 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION 


his  craving  for  knowledge.  And  at  thirteen,  he  was 
acknowledged  by  his  fellows  as  the  greatest  of  Tal¬ 
mudists.14  He  had  neither  guide  nor  teacher.  All 
unaided  he  discovered  the  path  of  truth.  He  held 
neither  a  rabbinical  nor  any  other  public  office.  He 
was  as  retiring  as  the  Besht  was  aggressive.  Never¬ 
theless  his  word  was  law,  and  his  influence  immense. 
The  centenary  of  his  death  (1897)  was  celebrated 
among  all  classes  with  the  solemnity  which  the 
memories  of  “  men  of  God  ”  inspire.15 

Now,  this  Gaon  of  Vilna,  or  Hagra,  was  per¬ 
haps  no  less  dissatisfied  with  prevailing  conditions 
than  the  Besht,  but  his  remedy  for  them  was  as 
different  as  the  two  personalities  were  unlike.  He 
did  not  desire  to  abolish  the  Talmud,  but  rather  to 
render  it  more  attractive,  by  making  its  acquisition 
easier  and  putting  its  study  on  a  scientific  basis. 
Even  in  Lithuania,  the  citadel  of  the  Talmud,  the 
development  of  Talmudic  learning  had  been  ham¬ 
pered.  In  accordance  with  a  Talmudic  principle, 
mankind  is  continually  degenerating,  not  only 
physically,  but  morally  and  mentally  as  well.  It 
holds  that  if  “  the  ancients  were  angels,  we  are 
mere  men;  if  they  were  but  men,  we  are  asses.” 
[This  high  regard  for  antiquity  produced  a  belief  in 
the  infallibility  of  the  rabbis  on  the  part  of  the 

71 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

Mitnaggedim,  similar  to  that  in  their  zaddikim  by 
the  Hasidim.  No  scholar  of  a  later  generation 
dared  disagree  with  the  statement  of  a  rabbi  of  a 
previous  generation.  But  as  authorities  sometimes 
conflict  with  each  other,  the  Talmudists  regarded 
it  their  duty  to  reconcile  them  or  to  prove,  in  the 
words  of  the  ancient  sages,  that  “  these  as  well  as 
those  are  the  words  of  the  living  God.”  Similarly, 
the  popes  declared  that,  despite  their  contradictions, 
the  Biblical  translations  of  Sixtus  V  and  Clement 
VIII  were  both  correct. 

It  is  true  that  Lithuanian  Talmudists  were  not 
always  the  slaves  of  authority  which  they  ultimately 
became.  A  study  of  the  works  of  the  early  Sla¬ 
vonian  rabbis,  before  and  after  Rabbi  Polack, 
shows  that  they  were  free  from  unhealthy  awe  of 
their  predecessors,  and  sometimes  were  audaciously 
independent.  Neither  Solomon  Luria  (Mahar- 
shal),  Samuel  Edels  (Maharsha),  or  Meir  Lublin 
(Maharam)  refrained  from  criticising  and  amend¬ 
ing  whenever  they  deemed  it  necessary.  But  in  the 
course  of  time  the  casuistic  method,  originally  a 
mere  pastime,  became  the  approved  method  of 
study,  and  produced  what  is  known  as  pilpul. 
Scholars  wasted  days  and  nights  in  heaping  Ossa 
upon  Pelion,  in  reconciling  difficulties  which  no 

72 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION 


logic  could  harmonize.  Here  the  Gaon  found  the 
first  and  most  urgent  need  for  reform.  The  Tal¬ 
mudists,  he  declared,  were  not  infallible.  Every 
one  may  interpret  the  Mishnah  in  accordance  with 
reason,  even  if  the  interpretation  be  not  in  keeping 
with  the  traditional  meaning  as  construed  by  the 
Amoraim.18 

His  views  on  religion  were  equally  liberal.  The 
same  process  of  reasoning  which,  spun  out  to  its 
logical  conclusion,  led  to  pilpul  in  the  schools,  pro¬ 
duced,  when  turned  into  the  channel  of  religion,  the 
over-piety  culminating  in  the  Shulhan  'Aruk.  This 
remarkable  book,  with  the  euphonious  name  The 
Ready  Tahle}  prescribed  enough  regulations  to  keep 
one  busy  from  early  morning  till  late  at  night.  The 
Jews  found  themselves  bound  hand  and  foot  by 
ceremonial  trammels  and  weighted  down  by  a  bur¬ 
den  of  innumerable  customs.  The  spirit  of  free¬ 
dom  that  had  animated  Slavonian  Judaism  during 
the  Middle  Ages  had  fled.  The  breadth  of  view 
that  had  marked  the  decision  of  many  of  its  rabbis 
was  gone.17  Judaism  was  a  mere  mummy  of  its 
former  self.  Here,  too,  the  Gaon  came  to  the 
rescue.  Rightly  or  wrongly,  he  “  established  the  im¬ 
portance  of  Minhagim  [religious  ceremonies]  ac¬ 
cording  to  their  antiquity  or  primitivism,  regarding 

73 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

those  which  have  originated  since  the  codification  of 
the  Shulhan  'Aruk  as  not  binding  at  all; those  which 
have  been  adopted  since  the  Talmudic  period  to  be 
subject  to  change  by  common  consent;  while  those 
of  the  Bible  and  in  the  Talmud  were  to  him  funda¬ 
mental  and  unalterable.”  13 

But  the  Gaon’s  influence  on  the  Haskalah  move¬ 
ment  by  far  surpassed  his  influence  on  the  study  of 
the  Talmud  or  on  the  ceremonials  of  the  synagogue. 
Many,  in  point  of  fact,  regard  him  as  the  originator 
of  the  movement.  As  he  was  the  first  to  oppose  the 
authority  of  the  Talmudists,  so  he  was  the  first  to 
inveigh  against  the  educational  system  among  the 
Jews  of  his  day  and  country.  The  mania  for  dis¬ 
tinction  in  rabbinical  learning  plunged  the  child 
into  the  mazes  of  Talmudic  casuistry  as  soon  as  he 
could  read;  frequently  he  had  not  read  the  Bible  or 
studied  the  rudiments  of  grammar.  The  Gaon 
insisted  that  every  one  should  first  master  the 
twenty-four  books  of  the  Bible,  their  etymology, 
prosody,  and  syntax,  then  the  six  divisions  of  the 
Mishnah  with  the  important  commentaries  and  the 
suggested  emendations,  and  finally  the  Talmud  in 
general,  without  wasting  much  time  on  pilpul,  which 
brings  no  practical  result.  “  These  few  lines,”  says 
a  writer,  “  contain  a  more  thorough  course  of  study 

74 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION 

than  Wessely  suggested  in  his  Words  of  Peace  and 
Truth.  Though  they  did  not  entirely  change  the 
system  in  vogue — for  great  is  the  power  of  habit 
— they  produced  a  wholesome  effect,  which  was 
visible  in  a  short  time  among  the  people.”  Further¬ 
more,  the  Gaon  exhorted  the  Talmudists  to  study 
secular  science,  since,  “  if  one  is  ignorant  of  the  other 
sciences,  one  is  a  hundredfold  more  ignorant  of  the 
sciences  of  the  Torah,  for  the  two  are  inseparably 
connected.”  He  set  the  example  by  writing,  not 
only  on  the  most  important  Hebrew  books,  Biblical, 
Talmudic,  and  Cabbalistic,  but  also  on  algebra, 
geometry,  trigonometry,  astronomy,  and  gram¬ 
mar.19  And  his  example  served  as  an  impetus  and 
encouragement  to  the  Maskilim  in  spreading 
knowledge  among  their  coreligionists. 

Such  was  the  man  who  led  the  crusade  against 
the  converts  to  Hasidism.  But  even  he  could  not 
stem  the  current.  In  their  despair,  the  Lithua¬ 
nian  Jews  turned  to  their  coreligionists  in  Ger¬ 
many,  and  implored  their  assistance  in  eradicat¬ 
ing,  or  at  least  suppressing,  the  threatened  inva¬ 
sion.  The  great  learning  and  literary  ability  of  the 
“  divine  philosopher,  Rabbi  Moses  ben  Menahem  ” 
(Mendelssohn,  1729-178 6),  were  appealed  to  for 
help.  Not  a  stone  was  left  unturned  to  crush  the 

75 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

new  sect  (kat) ,  so  called.  Volumes  of  the  Toledot 
Ydakob  Yosef,  in  which  Rabbi  Jacob  Joseph  of 
Polonnoy  set  forth  the  principles  of  the  Besht,  were 
burnt  in  the  market-place  in  Vilna.  Intermarriage, 
social  intercourse  of  any  kind,  was  prohibited 
between  Hasidim  and  Mitnaggedim.  In  Vilna, 
Grodno,  Brest,  Slutsk,  Minsk,  Pinsk,  etc.,  the  ban 
was  hurled  against  the  dissenters  by  the  most 
prominent  rabbis.  Israel  was  divided  into  two  hos¬ 
tile  camps.20  But  soon  everything  was  changed. 
Hasidim  and  Mitnaggedim  discovered  that  while 
they  were  fighting  each  other,  a  common  enemy  was 
undermining  the  ground  on  which  they  stood.  The 
Haskalah  was  steadily  drawing  recruits  from  both, 
and  it  threatened  ultimately  to  become  more  dan¬ 
gerous  to  both  than  they  were  to  each  other. 

From  the  South  had  come  the  impulse  of  re¬ 
ligious  revivalism  through  the  followers  of  the 
Besht,  and  the  North  was  showing  signs  of  awaken¬ 
ing  through  the  reforms  of  the  Gaon.  At  the  same 
time  a  ray  of  enlightenment  from  the  West  pierced 
through  the  night.  To  make  the  regeneration  of 
Slavonic  Judaism  complete,  the  element  of  estheti- 
cism  had  to  be  added  to  emotionalism  and  reason. 
From  the  warm  South  came  Besht,  from  the  studi¬ 
ous  North  Hagra,  and  Rambman  (Mendelssohn) 

76 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION 


made  his  appearance  from  the  enlightened  West. 
The  triumvirate  was  complete. 

Not  that  Mendelssohn  ever  visited  or  resided 
in  Russo-Poland.  But  the  gentle,  cultured  little 
savant  of  Berlin,  with  whose  lips,  Carlyle  tells  us, 
Socrates  spoke  like  Socrates  in  German  as  in  no 
other  modern  language,  “  for  his  own  character 
was  Socratic,”  was  at  no  period  of  his  life  wholly 
cut  off  from  influencing  Slavonic  Jews  and  from 
being  influenced  by  them.  As  a  lad  Mendelssohn 
was  instructed  by  Israel  Moses  Halevi  of  Zamoscz 
(ab.  1700-1772).  This  teacher  of  his,  who  is 
credited  with  several  inventions,  and  of  whom  Les¬ 
sing  says,  in  a  letter  to  Mendelssohn,  that  he  was 
“  one  of  the  first  to  arouse  a  love  for  science  in  the 
hearts  of  Jews,”  imbued  him  with  love  for  phil¬ 
osophy.  When  Mendelssohn  emerged  from  ob¬ 
scurity,  and,  despite  ill-health  and  ignorance,  at¬ 
tained  culture  and  breeding,  his  associate,  who  was 
with  him  the  most  important  factor  in  German  Has- 
kalah,  was  the  renowned  Naphtali,  or  Hartwig, 
Wessely,  whose  grandfather  Joseph  Reis  had  been 
among  the  fugitives  from  the  Cossack  massacres 
in  1648.  And  when  he  became  famous,  and  took 
his  place  among  the  greatest  of  his  age,  he  still 
sought  diversion  and  instruction  among  the  Sla- 

77 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


vonian  Jews,  and  boasted  of  being  a  descendant  of 
one  of  them,  Moses  Isserles  of  Cracow.  As  for¬ 
merly  with  the  Talmud,  the  Haskalah  seemed,  at 
the  time  of  Mendelssohn,  to  be  moving  from  the 
East  westward,  through  the  agency  of  the  Slavonic 
Jews  pouring  perennially  into  Germany.  Positions, 
from  the  lowly  melammed’s  to  the  honorable  chief 
rabbi’s  in  prominent  communities,  were  filled  almost 
exclusively  by  them.  The  cause  of  Judaism  seems 
to  have  been  entrusted  to  them.  Ezekiel  Landau, 
whose  tactful  intercession  helped  greatly  to  estab¬ 
lish  peace  between  the  Emden-Eybeschiitz  factions, 
was  rabbi  of  Prague  for  almost  forty  years  (17 55- 
1793)  5  the  equally  prominent,  but  at  first  some¬ 
what  less  liberal  Phinehas  Horowitz  was  rabbi  and 
dean  in  Frankfort-on-the-Main  for  over  thirty  years 
(1771-1805)  ;  his  brother  Shmelke,  regarded  as  a 
saint,  was  chief  rabbi  of  Moravia  (177 5).  An¬ 
other  Horwitz,  Aaron  Halevi,  was  rabbi  of  Berlin, 
one  of  those  who  favored  Mendelssohn’s  transla¬ 
tion  of  the  Pentateuch ;  while  the  cultured  and  pro¬ 
found  Tadmudist  Raphael  Hakohen,  whose  grand¬ 
son,  Gabriel  Riesser,  became  the  greatest  champion 
of  Jewish  emancipation  Germany  has  yet  produced, 
was  offered  the  rabbinate  of  Berlin  (1771).  He 
declined  the  post,  and  finally  became  chief  rabbi 

78 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION 


(1776-1803)'  of  the  united  congregations  of  Al- 
tona,  Hamburg,  and  Wandsbeck.  It  is  also  re¬ 
corded  that  Samuel  ben  Avigdor,  the  last  rabbi  of 
Vilna,  held  the  rabbinate  of  Konigsberg,21  and  there 
certainly  must  have  been  many  more  who,  because 
of  their  inferior  positions,  cannot  be  so  easily  traced. 

Besides,  Germany,  as  we  have  seen,  was  the  com¬ 
mon  fatherland  of  the  greater  part  of  both  Slavonic 
and  Teutonic  Jews.  It  never  remained  a  terra 
incognita  to  the  former  for  any  length  of  time.  Its 
proximity  to  Russia,  the  business  relations  between 
the  Jews  of  the  two  countries,  intermarriage,  and, 
with  a  few  insignificant  exceptions,  the  identity  of 
language,  made  the  Jews  of  both  countries  come 
into  closer  contact  than  was  possible  with  any  other 
Jews.  For  the  studious,  Germany  possessed  the 
attraction  which  the  “  land  of  universities  ”  exerts 
upon  seekers  after  knowledge  the  world  over.  To 
whom,  indeed,  could  the  profound  and  abstruse 
speculations  of  Leibnitz  and  Kant  make  a  stronger 
appeal  than  to  the  Jew  who  had  been  initiated  into 
metaphysical  abstractions  from  his  very  childhood? 
It  is  no  wonder,  then,  that  immigration  from  Russo- 
Poland  into  Germany  was  constantly  on  the  in¬ 
crease,  until,  under  Alexander  II,  the  advancement 
of  Russian  civilization  put  a  stop  in  a  measure  to 

79 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

these  roamings,  to  be  resumed  under  Alexander  III 
and  Nicholas  II. 

The  Russo-Polish  youth,  therefore,  found  him¬ 
self  quite  at  home  in  the  country  of  Mendelssohn, 
and  thither,  in  case  of  necessity,  he  would  go.  In 
the  eleventh  century  Jews  had  gone  from  Germany 
to  Poland.  In  the  eighteenth  they  retraced  their 
steps  from  Poland  to  Germany.  Outnumbering  by 
far  those  who  went  there  from  choice  or  by  invita¬ 
tion,  were  those  compelled  to  go  in  search  of  a  liveli¬ 
hood.  “  When  I  reached  the  age  of  twenty,  peace¬ 
ful  and  comfortable  in  my  father’s  house,  I  began  to 
hope  that  henceforth  I  should  pursue  my  studies  un¬ 
interrupted.  But  all  at  once  my  father  lost  his  for¬ 
tune,  and  I  was  forced  to  go  somewhere  to  provide 
for  myself.  So  I  became  a  melammed  in  Berlin.” 
This  piece  of  autobiography  in  the  preface  to  a  Tal¬ 
mudic  treatise  by  Reuben  of  Zamoscz  might  have 
been  written  by  many  others,  too.  But  there  were 
also  the  goodly  number  led  thither  by  thirst  for 
knowledge,  whose  remarkable  abilities  attracted  the 
admiration  of  Jew  and  Gentile  alike.  Wessely  the 
poet  and  Linda  the  mathematician  more  than  once 
expressed  surprise  at  the  amount  of  learning  many 
of  the  poor  immigrants  were  found  to  possess.22 


80 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION 

Among  these  immigrants  were  two  who  may  justly 
be  regarded  as  the  conducting  medium  through 
which  the  Haskalah  currents  were  transmitted  from 
Germany  to  Russo-Poland :  Solomon  Dubno,  the  in¬ 
defatigable  laborer  in  the  province  of  Jewish  science, 
and  Solomon  Maimon,  the  brilliant  but  unfortunate 
philosopher,  both  of  them  teachers  in  the  house  of 
Mendelssohn. 

Solomon  Dubno  (1738-1813)  was  all  his  life  a 
bee  in  search  of  flowers,  to  turn  their  sweetness  into 
honey.  Having  exhausted  the  knowledge  of  his 
Volhynian  instructors,  he  went  to  Galicia,  where  he 
became  proficient  in  Hebrew  grammar  and  Biblical 
exegesis.  Thence,  attracted  by  its  rich  collection 
of  books,  he  left  for  Amsterdam,  where  he  spent 
five  years  in  study  and  research.  Finally  he  settled 
in  Berlin,  and  earned  a  livelihood  by  teaching 
among  others  the  children  of  Mendelssohn.  The 
gentle  disposition  and  profound  learning  of  the 
Polish  emigrant  made  a  favorable  impression  on 
the  Berlin  sage,  who  invited  him  to  participate  in 
his  translation  of  the  Bible,  which  revolutionized  the 
Judaism  of  the  nineteenth  century  more  than  the 
Septuagint  that  of  the  first  century.  The  result 
was  the  Biur  (commentary),  which  he,  together 
with  his  countryman,  Aaron  Yaroslav,  also  a 

81 


6 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

teacher,  wrote  on  several  books  of  the  Bible.  Com¬ 
paratively  few  of  Dubno’s  works  have  been  pub¬ 
lished,  but  judging  from  such  as  are  known  we  may 
safely  pronounce  him  a  master  of  the  Massorah  and 
a  scholar  of  unusual  attainments.  Of  his  poems 
Delitzsch  says  that  they  are  “  in  the  truest  sense 
Hebrew  in  expression,  Biblical  in  imagery  and  sub¬ 
ject-matter,  medieval  in  rhyme  and  rhythm,  and  in 
general  genuinely  Jewish  in  manner  of  treatment,” 
— laudation  which  this  exacting  critic  bestowed  on 
no  other  Hebrew  poet  of  his  time.  It  was  mainly 
through  the  endeavors  of  Dubno  that  Mendels¬ 
sohn’s  Pentateuch,  later  regarded  with  suspicion, 
was  everywhere  bought  and  studied  eagerly.23 

One  better  known  to  the  outside  world  than 
Dubno,  and  who  has  engraved  his  name  forever 
on  the  history  of  theology  and  philosophy,  was  Solo¬ 
mon  Maimon  (Nieszvicz,  Lithuania,  1754 — Nie- 
dersiegersdorf,  Silesia,  1800).  In  his  famous  auto¬ 
biography  is  mirrored  the  lot  of  hundreds  of  his 
countrymen  who,  like  him,  left  their  homes  and 
hearths,  their  nearest  and  dearest,  and  led  a 
wretched  and  miserable  existence,  all  because  they 
were  anxious  to  be  ma'amike  be-hakmah  (“delvers 
in  knowledge  ” ) ,  as  he  himself  might  have  said,  and 
avail  themselves  of  the  opportunities  for  acquiring 

82 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION 


the  truth  and  wisdom  unattainable  in  their  own 
land. 

But  Maimon  was  doomed  to  suffer  abroad  even 
more  than  at  home.  He  was  one  of  those  unfortu¬ 
nates  whose  sufferings  are  regarded  as  well-de¬ 
served.  His  exceptional  ability  was  never  to  de¬ 
velop  to  its  fullest  capacity.  Great  injustice  has 
been  done  to  him,  not  only  by  the  rabid  orthodox, 
who  denied  him  a  grave  in  their  cemetery,  but  even 
by  the  enlightened  historian  Graetz.  Fortunately 
he  left  behind  him  his  Lebensgeschichte,  among  the 
best  of  its  kind  in  German  literature,  in  which,  with 
the  frankness  of  a  Rousseau,  he  described  the 
events  of  his  short  and  checkered  career.24 

From  this  admirable  work,  in  which  he  neither 
hides  his  follies  nor  flaunts  his  talents,  we  learn  that 
Maimon  possessed  rare  virtues.  His  sympathy  for 
the  poor,  his  ready  helpfulness  even  at  the  sacrifice 
of  himself,  rendered  him  as  uncommon  in  moral 
action  as  in  philosophic  speculation.  To  the  English 
reader  a  striking  parallelism  suggests  itself  between 
him  and  his  contemporary  Oliver  Goldsmith.  Both 
were  afflicted  with  generosity  above  their  fortunes; 
both  had  a  “  knack  at  hoping,”  which  led  frequently 
to  their  undoing;  neither  could  subscribe  easily  to 
the  u  decent  formalities  of  rigid  virtue  ”;  and,  as 

83 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


of  the  latter  we  may  also  say  of  the  former,  in  the 
language  of  a  reviewer,  “  He  had  lights  and  shad¬ 
ows,  virtues  and  foibles — vices  you  cannot  call 
them,  be  you  never  so  unkind.” 

As  Goldsmith  came  to  London,  so  came  Maimon 
to  Berlin,  “  without  friends,  recommendation, 
money,  or  impudence.”  His  only  luggage  was  two 
manuscripts:  a  commentary  on  the  works  of  Mai- 
muni,  whose  name  he  had  adopted,  and  to  whom 
he  paid  divine  reverence ;  and  a  treatise  in  which  he 
attempted  to  rationalize  the  recondite  doctrines  of 
the  Cabbala,  and  which  he  always  kept  by  him  “  as 
a  monument  of  the  struggle  of  the  human  mind 
after  perfection  in  spite  of  all  hindrances  which 
were  put  in  its  way.”  The  little  bundle,  which,  to 
the  zealot  Jewish  elders  of  that  community,  seemed 
sufficient  indication  that  Maimon  was  tainted  with 
heresy,  and  that  his  intentions  were  to  devote  him¬ 
self  to  the  study  of  science  and  philosophy,  proved 
a  great  impediment  to  entering  Berlin;  and  when, 
after  a  long,  incredible  struggle,  he  was  finally  ad¬ 
mitted,  he  found  himself  incapable  of  earning  a 
livelihood.  In  his  childlike  naivete  he  was  betrayed 
by  the  very  persons  upon  whom  he  relied  most. 
All  this  could  not  deaden  his  love  for  knowledge 
and  truth.  By  chance  he  obtained  Wolff’s  Meta - 

84 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION 

physics,  and  this  marked  a  new  epoch  in  his  life. 
“  Not  only  the  sublime  science  in  itself,”  says  he, 
“  but  also  the  order  and  mathematical  method  of 
the  celebrated  author,  the  precision  of  his  explana¬ 
tions,  the  exactness  of  his  reasoning,  and  the  scien¬ 
tific  arrangement  of  his  expositions — all  this  kin¬ 
dled  a  new  light  in  my  mind.” 

So  profound  a  thinker  could  not  for  long  be  a 
mere  pupil.  Wolff’s  argument  a  posteriori  for  the 
existence  of  God,  in  accordance  with  his  philosophic 
hobby,  the  “  principle  of  sufficient  reason,”  dis¬ 
pleased  him  wholly.  A  Hebrew  letter  to  Mendels¬ 
sohn,  in  which  he  shook  the  foundation  of  the  Meta¬ 
physics  by  means  of  his  irrefutable  ontology,  won 
him  the  admiration  of  the  Berlin  sage,  who  invited 
him  to  become  his  daily  guest. 

Maimon’s  intellect  unfolded  from  day  to  day, 
until,  some  time  afterwards,  he  astonished  the  philo¬ 
sophic  world  by  his  great  work,  Die  Transcenden¬ 
tal  Philosophie  (Berlin,  1790),  in  reference  to 
which  Kant  wrote  to  his  beloved  disciple  Marcus 
Herz :  “  A  mere  glance  at  it  enabled  me  to  recog¬ 
nize  its  merits,  and  showed  me,  that  not  only  had 
none  of  my  opponents  understood  me  and  the  main 
problem  so  well,  but  very  few  could  claim  so  much 
penetration  as  Herr  Maimon  in  profound  inquiries 

85 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

of  this  sort.”  He  demolished  the  prevalent  Leib- 
nitzo- Wolffian  system  in  it,  and  proved  that  even  the 
Kantian  theory,  though  irrefutable  from  a  dog¬ 
matic  point  of  view,  is  exposed  to  severe  attacks 
from  the  skeptic’s  point  of  view. 

Thenceforth  he  became  a  leading  figure  in  philo¬ 
sophic  controversy.  In  1793  he  published  Ueber 
die  Pro gr esse  der  Philo sophie ;  in  1794,  Fersuch 
einer  neuen  Logik ,  and  Die  Kategorien  des  Arts - 
toteles,  and,  three  years  later,  Kritische  Untersuch- 
ungen  iiber  den  menschlichen  Geist  (Berlin,  1797), 
wherein  he  originated  a  speculative,  monistic  ideal¬ 
ism,  which  pervaded  not  only  philosophy,  but  all 
sciences  during  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  cen¬ 
tury,  the  system  by  which  Fichte,  Schelling,  and 
Hegel  were  influenced.  According  to  Bernfeld, 
he  was  the  greatest  Jewish  philosopher  since  the 
time  of  Spinoza,  with  whose  depth  of  reasoning  he 
combined  an  ease  and  straightforwardness  of  illus¬ 
tration  characteristic  of  Benjamin  Franklin.25 

With  all  this  he  remained  an  ardent  lover  of  the 
Talmud  to  the  last.  In  fact,  his  philosophy  is  dis¬ 
tinctively  Jewish.  Like  Spinoza,  he  exhibited  the 
effects  of  the  Cabbala  and  of  rabbinic  speculation, 
with  which  he  had  been  familiar  from  childhood. 
The  honor  of  the  Talmudic  sages  was  always  dear 

86 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION 


to  him,  and  he  never  mentioned  them  without  ex¬ 
pressing  profound  respect.  Persecuted  though  he 
was  by  his  German  coreligionists,  he  never  bore 
them  a  grudge.  As  a  man  he  loved  them  as 
brothers,  but  as  a  philosopher  he  could  not  subscribe 
to  their  views  implicitly.  But  for  friends  and  bene¬ 
factors  his  affection  was  unusually  strong.  With 
what  love  he  talks  of  Mendelssohn  in  the  chapter 
dedicated  to  him  in  his  autobiography,  even  though 
“  he  could  not  explain  the  persistency  of  Mendels¬ 
sohn  and  the  Wolffians  generally  in  adhering  to 
their  system,  except  as  a  political  dodge,  and  a  piece 
of  hypocrisy,  by  which  they  studiously  endeavored 
to  descend  to  the  mode  of  thinking  common  to  the 
popular  mind !  ”  His  devotion  to  his  wife  was  not 
diminished  even  after  he  had  been  compelled  to 
divorce  her  because  of  his  supposed  heretical  pro¬ 
clivities.  “  When  the  subject  [of  his  divorce]  came  up 
in  conversation,  it  was  easy,”  says  his  biographer,29 
“to  read  in  his  face  the  deep  sorrow  he  felt:  his 
liveliness  then  faded  away  sensibly.  By  and  by  he 
would  become  perfectly  silent,  was  incapable  of 
further  entertainment,  and  went  home  earlier  than 
usual.”  Of  his  Russo-Polish  brethren  he  speaks 
in  the  highest  terms.  He  cannot  bestow  too  much 
praise  on  their  care  for  the  poor  and  the  sick,  and 

87 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

he  always  hoped  once  more  to  see  his  native  land, 
to  whose  king  he  dedicated  his  Transcendental 
Philosophy.  “  For,”  says  he,  “  the  Polish  Jews  are, 
indeed,  for  the  most  part  not  enlightened  by  science ; 
their  manners  and  way  of  life  are  still  rude,  but 
they  are  loyal  to  the  religion  of  their  fathers  and 
to  the  laws  of  their  country.”  27 

It  is  because  I  regard  him  as  the  greatest  Maskil 
of  his  time  that  I  have  dwelt  on  Maimon  at  such 
length.  Mendelssohn’s  philosophy,  if  he  had  an 
original  system,  has  long  since  passed  into  oblivion; 
Maimon’s  will  be  studied  as  long  as  Spinoza,  Leib¬ 
nitz,  and  Kant  are  in  vogue.  His  importance  to  us 
does  not  lie  in  the  circumstance  that  his  autobiog¬ 
raphy — “  that  wonderful  bit  of  Autobiography,” 
as  George  Eliot  speaks  of  it,  or  “  that  curious  and 
rare  book,”  as  Dean  Milman  calls  it — and  the  pic¬ 
tures  drawn  of  him  by  Berthold  Auerbach  and 
Israel  Zangwill 28  have  made  him  the  hero  of  some 
of  the  world’s  best  biographies  and  novels.  Over 
and  above  this,  he  is  the  prototype  of  his  unfortu¬ 
nate  countrymen  during  the  days  of  transition.  He 
embodied  the  aspiration,  courage,  and  disappoint¬ 
ments  of  them  all,  and  if,  as  Carlyle  said,  “  the  his¬ 
tory  of  the  world  is  the  history  of  its  great  men,” 
Maimon’s  life  should  be  studied  by  all  interested  in 

88 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION 


the  Kulturkampf  of  the  Russo-Polish  and  of  the 
German  Jews  in  the  eighteenth  century. 

What  could  he  not  have  accomplished,  he  to 
whom  Kant  and  Goethe,  Schiller  and  Korner  paid 
tributes  of  unstinted  praise,  had  he  not  been  doomed 
to  suffer  and  to  starve.  Only  at  the  last  moment, 
before  he  was  silenced  forever,  was  he  able  to  say, 
Ich  bin  ruhig  (“I  am  at  peace  ”).  Yet,  in  spite 
of  the  difficulties  and  impediments  besetting  him  at 
every  step,  his  promise  of  greatness  and  usefulness 
was  not  belied.  In  the  Introduction  to  his  commen¬ 
tary  on  Maimuni’s  Guide  to  the  Perplexed  (Gibe  at 
ha-Moreh) ,  in  which  he  attempted  to  reconcile  his 
master’s  system  with  that  of  modern  philosophy — 
even  as  the  master  had  tried  to  reconcile  Judaism 
with  Aristotelianism — he  gave  a  brief  sketch  of  the 
development  of  modern  thought.  This  part  of  his 
work  was  assiduously  studied  by  his  compatriots. 
Among  his  unpublished  writings  was  found  a  work 
on  mathematical  physics,  Tdalumot  Hokmah }  and 
in  his  Talmudic  treatise,  Heshek  Shelomoh,  he  in¬ 
serted  a  dissertation,  Ma'aseh  Hosheb}  on  arith¬ 
metic,  like  a  skilful  physician  putting  a  healing, 
though  to  some  it  may  appear  a  repelling,  balm  into 
a  delicious,  attractive  capsule. 

89 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


The  story  of  Maimon,  as  I  have  said,  is  the  story 
of  many  of  the  peripatetic  apostles  of  Haskalah, 
and  his  experience  was  more  or  less  also  theirs. 
Issachar  Falkensohn  Behr  (or  Bar  Falkensohn, 
1746-1796?),  without  funds,  friends,  or  rudi¬ 
mentary  knowledge  of  the  subjects  necessary  for 
admission  into  a  public  school,  left  his  native  city 
of  Zamoscz  with  the  determination  to  enter  the 
university  of  “  Little  Berlin,”  as  Konigsberg  was 
called.  Too  poor  to  carry  out  his  plan,  he  tramped 
to  Berlin.  Through  the  influence  of  his  relatives 
and  countrymen,  Israel  Moses  Halevi  and  Daniel 
Jaffe,  he  was  introduced  to  Mendelssohn,  and  was 
enabled  to  devote  himself  systematically  to  the 
study  of  German,  the  alphabet  of  which  he  had 
learned  from  Wolff’s  treatise  on  mathematics,  and 
to  French,  Latin,  physics,  philosophy,  and  medicine. 
In  a  very  short  time  he  mastered  them  all,  espe¬ 
cially  German.  His  Gedichte  eines  polnischen 
Juden  (Mitau  and  Leipsic,  1772)  caused  no  little 
stir  among  the  poets.  Lessing  and  Goethe,  close 
observers  of  symptoms  of  enlightenment  among  the 
Jews,  expressed  themselves  differently  as  to  the  real 
merit  of  the  collection;  but  both  concurred  with 
Boie,  who,  writing  to  Knebel,  the  friend  of  Goethe, 
remarked  concerning  them,  “  You  are  right;  the 

90 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION 

Jewish  nation  promises  much  after  it  is  once 
awakened.” 29 

For  one  reason  or  another  we  find  that  some 
Slavonic  Jewish  youths  preferred  other  places  to 
Berlin  for  the  pursuit  of  their  studies.  Such  were 
Benjamin  Wolf  Giinzberg  and  Jacob  Liboschiits. 
The  former  was  probably  the  only  Jew  at  the  Got¬ 
tingen  University.  It  was  from  there  that  he  in¬ 
quired  of  Jacob  Emden  “  whether  it  was  permissible 
to  dissect  on  the  Sabbath,”  and  his  thesis  for  the 
doctor’s  degree  was  De  medica  ex  Talmudicis  illus - 
trata  (Gottingen,  1743). 30  Liboschiits  studied  at 
the  University  of  Halle.  After  graduation,  finding 
that  as  a  Jew  he  could  not  settle  in  St.  Petersburg, 
he  established  himself  in  Vilna,  where  he  became 
celebrated  as  a  diplomat,  philanthropist,  and,  more 
especially,  expert  physician.  When  Professor 
Frank  was  asked  who  would  take  care  of  the  public 
health  in  his  absence,  he  is  reported  to  have  said, 
Dens  et  Judaeus}  “  God  and  the  Jew  ”  [Libo- 
schiits]  ! 

In  their  deep-rooted  love  for  learning,  they  some¬ 
times  ventured  even  beyond  the  German  bound¬ 
aries,  into  countries  whose  language  and  customs 
had  little  in  common  with  theirs.  Padua  continued 
to  be  the  resort  of  Russo-Polish  Jews  that  it  had 

91 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

been  before  1 648.  Moses  Hayyim  Luzzatto  found 
an  ardent  admirer  and  zealous  propagandist  of  his 
principles  in  the  young  medical  student  Jekuthiel 
Gordon  (ab.  1729 ),  who  wrote  concerning  his  mas¬ 
ter  to  friends  in  Vienna  and  Vilna.81  Judah  Halevi 
Hurwitz  (d.  1797),  whose  work  'Ammude  Bet 
Yehudah  (Amsterdam,  17 65)  was  highly  recom¬ 
mended  by  Mendelssohn  and  Wessely,  was  a  grad¬ 
uate  of  the  same  famous  institution.  In  addition 
to  his  medical  and  philosophic  attainments,  he  wrote 
a  number  of  poems,  and  he  was  among  the  first  to 
translate  fables  from  German  into  Hebrew.32 

The  story  of  Zalkind  Hurwitz  (1740-1812), 
“  le  fameux,”  as  he  was  called  by  a  French  writer, 
is  interesting.  Starting,  as  usual,  by  going  to  Berlin, 
and  succeeding,  as  usual,  in  gaining  the  friendship 
of  Mendelssohn,  he  then  visited  Nancy,  Metz,  and 
Strasburg,  and  finally  settled  in  Paris.  Like  Doctor 
Behr,  he  had  to  resort  to  peddling  as  a  means  for  a 
livelihood.  The  rudiments  of  French  he  acquired 
from  any  book  he  chanced  to  obtain.  Nevertheless, 
he  soon  became  proficient  in  the  language  of  his 
adopted  country,  and  wrote  his  excellent  Apologie 
des  juifs,  which,  crowned  by  the  Academy  of  Metz 
and  quoted  by  Mirabeau,  was  largely  instrumental 
in  removing  the  disabilities  of  the  Jews  in  France. 

92 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION 


Clermont-Tonnerre,  the  advocate  of  Jewish  emanci¬ 
pation,  said  of  him,  Le  juif  polonais  seul  avalt 
parle  en  philosophe.  He  was  suggested  as  a  mem¬ 
ber  of  the  Sanhedrin  convoked  by  Napoleon  in 
1807.  Though  for  some  reason  he  never  enjoyed 
the  honor  of  membership  in  it,  he  was,  nevertheless, 
the  ruling  spirit  in  the  august  assembly,  and  later 
generations  have  paid  him  the  homage  he  deserves.33 

Where  Hurwitz  failed,  another  of  his  country¬ 
men  was  to  succeed.  Judah  Litvack  (1776-1836) 
removed  from  Berlin  to  Amsterdam,  became  prom¬ 
inent  among  the  Dutch  mathematicians,  and  wrote 
a  Dutch  work,  Verhan deling  over  de  Profgetallen 
Gen.  ii  (Amsterdam,  1817),  which  appeared  in  a 
second  edition  four  years  after  the  first.  The  author 
was  elected  a  member  of  the  Mathesis  Artium  Gene- 
trix  Society,  and  appointed  one  of  the  deputation 
sent  to  the  Sanhedrin  (February  12,  1807),  before 
which  he  delivered  a  discourse  in  the  German  lan¬ 
guage. 

The  “  distant  isles  of  the  sea,”  the  British  Is¬ 
lands,  Russo-Polish  Jews  seem  to  have  frequented 
ever  since  the  Restoration,  probably  contempora¬ 
neously  with  the  settlement  of  the  Spanish  Jews. 
The  famous  mystic  Hayyim  Samuel  Jacob  Falk, 
one  of  the  many  Baal-Shems  who  flourished  in 

93 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

Podolia  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
settled  in  London  before  1750,  and  became  the  sub¬ 
ject  of  many  wonder  stories.  Sussman  Shesnovzi, 
apparently  a  countryman  of  his,  describes  him,  in  a 
letter  to  Jacob  Emden,  as  “  standing  alone  in  his 
generation  by  reason  of  his  knowledge  of  holy 
mysteries.”  That  this  was  the  opinion  of  many  and 
prominent  personages  may  be  inferred  from  the 
fact  that  among  his  callers  were  such  distinguished 
visitors  as  the  Marchese  de  Crona,  Baron  de  Neu- 
hoff,  Prince  Czartorisky,  and  the  Duke  of  Orleans. 
The  confidence  of  such  as  these  brought  Falk  a  con¬ 
siderable  fortune,  a  large  part  of  which  he  be¬ 
queathed  to  a  charity  fund,  the  interest  of  which  the 
overseers  of  the  United  Synagogue  still  distribute 
annually  among  the  poor.34  Shortly  before  “  Doc¬ 
tor  ”  Falk’s  death  (1782),  there  settled  in  London 
Phinehas  Phillips  of  Krotoschin,  the  founder  of  the 
Phillips  family,  which  has  furnished  two  Lord 
Mayors  to  the  city  of  London. 

It  was  not  merely  because  of  its  business  facilities 
that  England  appealed  to  the  Slavonic  J ews.  Baruch 
Shklover,  or  Schick  (1740-1812),  went  thither  to 
study  medicine,  and  it  was  from  English  literature 
that  he  selected  the  material  for  his  Keneh  ha-Mid - 
dah  (Prague,  1784;  Shklov,  1793),  on  trigonom- 

94 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION 


etry.  It  would  appear  that  the  first  Hebrew  book, 
Toledot  Ydakob,  printed  for  a  Jew  in  England, 
was,  as  the  name  of  the  author,  Eisenstadt,  suggests, 
that  of  a  Slavonic  Jew.  Although  a  silversmith 
by  profession,  Israel  Lyons  (d.  1770)  was  ap¬ 
pointed  teacher  of  Hebrew  at  the  University  of 
Cambridge.  He  acquired  repute  as  a  Hebrew 
scholar,  and  published,  in  1757,  the  Scholar’s  In¬ 
structor,  or  Hebrew  Grammar  (4th  ed.,  1823), 
and  in  1768  a  treatise  printed  by  the  Cambridge 
Press,  Observations  and  Inquiries  Relating  to  Va¬ 
rious  Parts  of  Scripture  History.  In  the  same 
chosen  field  labored  Hyman  Hurwitz  (1770- 
1844),  the  friend  of  Coleridge,  who  founded  the 
Highgate  Academy  (1799),  and  wrote  an  In¬ 
troduction  to  Hebrew  Grammar,  Vindica  He¬ 
braic  a,  and  Hebrew  Tales,  which  were  translated 
into  various  languages.  He  finally  became  pro¬ 
fessor  of  Hebrew  in  University  College,  London. 

A  younger  contemporary  of  Abrahamson,  the 
Jewish  German  medallist,  was  Solomon  (Yom 
Tob)  Bennett  (1780-1841),  the  engraver  of  Po¬ 
lotsk,  who  spent  a  number  of  years  at  Copenhagen 
and  Berlin  in  perfecting  himself  in  his  art.  Among 
his  works  is  a  highly  praised  bas-relief  of  Frederick 
II,  which  was  much  admired  by  the  professors  of 

95 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

the  Academy.  An  ardent  lover  of  liberty,  of  which 
there  was  little  more  in  Germany  at  that  time  than 
in  Russia,  he  left  for  England,  where  he  spent  the 
remaining  years  of  his  life,  in  Bristol.  Besides 
being  an  artist  and  an  engraver  he  was  a  profound 
theologian,  anxious  to  defend  the  cause  of  Judaism 
against  enemies  within  and  without.  The  enemy 
within  he  attacked  in  his  cutting  criticism  of  Solo¬ 
mon  Cohen’s  Rudiments  of  Religion)  and  the  enemy 
outside,  in  his  other  work,  The  Constancy  of  Israel 
( Nezah  Yisrael,  London,  1809).  He  also  wrote 
expositions  on  many  important  Biblical  topics,  such 
as  sacrifices  (1815)  and  the  Temple  (1824).  Hav¬ 
ing  pointed  out  the  defects  of  the  Authorized  Ver¬ 
sion  ( 1834) ,  he  was  ambitious  of  publishing  a  com¬ 
plete  revised  translation  of  the  Bible.  Specimens 
appeared  in  1841.  Death  intervened  and  frus¬ 
trated  his  plans.  As  Schick  was  the  first  Jew  to 
translate  from  English  into  Hebrew,  so  Bennett 
was  the  first  after  Manasseh  ben  Israel  to  write  in 
English  in  behalf  of  his  people.35 

If  the  contributions  of  Slavonic  Jews  to  Latin, 
German,  French,  Dutch,  and  English  literature 
were  not  less  considerable  at  that  time  than  those 
of  the  Jews  residing  in  the  countries  where  these 
languages  were  respectively  used  as  media,  they 

96 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION 


excelled  them  in  Hebrew  literature.  In  the  renais¬ 
sance  of  the  holy  tongue,  they  played  the  most 
important  part  from  the  first.  The  striving  for 
knowledge,  not  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  a  cov¬ 
eted  privilege,  but  for  its  own  sake,  became  an 
irresistible  passion,  and  it  was  accompanied  by  an 
unquenchable  desire  to  disseminate  knowledge 
among  the  masses,  to  make  learning  and  wisdom 
common  property.  The  Hebrew  language  being 
the  best  vehicle  for  the  purpose,  it  was  soon  im¬ 
pressed  into  the  service  of  Haskalah.  The  pioneer 
Maskilim  learned  to  handle  it  with  ease  and  clear¬ 
ness  that  would  do  credit  to  a  modern  writer  in  a 
much  more  developed  European  language. 

From  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  to  the  latter 
part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  Hebrew  literature 
consisted,  if  a  few  scattered  books  on  philosophy, 
mostly  translations  from  the  Arabic,  are  excepted, 
mainly  of  Talmudic  disquisitions,  written  in  the 
rabbinic  dialect  and  in  a  euphuistic  style.  Besides 
the  great  Maimuni,  there  were  few  able  or  willing 
to  write  Hebrew  “  as  she  should  be  spoke.”  The 
early  German  Maskilim,  in  trying  to  escape  the 
Scylla  of  Rabbinism,  fell  victims  to  the  Charybdis 
of  Germanism.  They  possessed  originality  neither 
of  style  nor  of  sentiment,  neither  of  rhyme  nor  of 

97 


7 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

reason.  Hebrew  poetry  was  an  adaptation  of  cur¬ 
rent  German  poetry.  The  very  best  the  period  pro¬ 
duced,  the  Mosaide  of  Wessely,  was  influenced  by 
and  largely  an  imitation  of  Klopstock  and  others. 
Like  English  classic  poetry,  it  is  pretty  in  form  but 
poor  in  spirit.  The  element  of  nationality,  or  dis¬ 
tinctiveness,  the  life-giving  and  soul-uplifting  ele¬ 
ment  in  all  poetry,  as  Delitzsch  justly  maintains  it 
to  be,  was  lacking  in  the  German  Maskilim,  anx¬ 
ious  for  naturalization  as  they  were.  It  was  the 
Slavonic  Maskilim  who  mastered  Hebrew  in  its 
purity,  as  it  had  not  been  mastered  since  the  day 
of  Judah  Halevi.  In  those  days  of  transition  the 
diligent  student  can  find,  in  germ,  what  was  later 
to  develop  into  the  resplendent  poetical  flowers 
produced  by  the  Lebensohns,  the  Gordons,  Do- 
litzky,  Schapiro,  Mane,  and  Bialik. 

The  Slavonic  contributors  to  the  Meassef,  the 
first  Hebrew  literary  periodical  (1784-1811),  were 
not  conspicuous  in  number,  but  if  quality  can  com¬ 
pensate  for  quantity,  they  made  up  for  it  by  the 
value  of  their  articles.  Dubno  and  Maimon  en¬ 
riched  the  early  issues,  the  one  with  poetry,  the 
other  with  philosophy;  and  when  it  began  to  strug¬ 
gle  for  its  existence,  and  was  on  the  point  of  giving 
up  the  ghost,  Shalom  Cohen  (1772-1845)  came  to 

98 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION 


the  rescue,  and,  as  editor,  prolonged  its  existence 
by  a  few  years.  Among  the  best  articles  in  the 
Meassef  are  those  of  Isaac  Halevi  Satanov  ( 1 733- 
1805).  This  “conglomeration  of  contrasts,” 
whom  Delitzsch  regards  as  the  restorer  of  Hebrew 
poetry  to  its  primitive  beauty  and  purity,  was  the 
embodiment  of  the  period  in  which  he  lived.  “  He 
was,”  we  are  told,  “  a  thorough  master  of  Jewish 
traditional  lore,  and  at  the  same  time  a  most  ad¬ 
vanced  thinker,  a  profound  physicist,  and  an  in¬ 
spired  poet;  a  master  of  the  old  school  and  at  the 
same  time  the  founder  of  the  new  school,  the 
national-classical,  of  Hebrew  poetry.”  His  pure 
and  precise  style,  his  good-natured,  Horace-like, 
delicate,  yet  unmistakable,  humor,  he  showed  in  a 
series  of  books  bearing  the  name  of  Asaf,  which 
still  must  be  counted  among  the  gems  of  Hebrew 
literature.36 

Satanov  was  greatly  in  favor  of  expanding  the 
Hebrew  language,  but  the  first  to  borrow  expres¬ 
sions  from  the  Talmud  literature  or  coin  words  of 
his  own  was  Mendel  Levin,  also  of  Satanov,  Po- 
dolia  (1741-1819),  the  friend  of  Mendelssohn 
while  in  Berlin,  the  inspirer  of  Perl  and  Krochmal 
while  in  Brody,  the  companion  of  Zeitlin  and 
Schick  while  in  Mohilev.  The  Meassefim,  the 

99 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

name  generally  applied  to  all  who  participated  in 
the  publication  of  the  Meassef,  were  shocked  by 
what  they  regarded  a  profanation  of  the  sacred 
tongue.  Their  idea  was  that  Hebrew  was  to  be 
utilized  as  a  means  of  introducing  Western  civiliza¬ 
tion.  Afterwards  it  was  to  be  relegated  once  more 
to  the  holy  Ark.  To  Levin  Hebrew  had  a  far 
higher  significance.  Not  only  should  Western  civi¬ 
lization  be  introduced  into  Jewry  through  its  means, 
but  Hebrew  itself  should  be  so  perfected  as  to 
take  a  place  by  the  side  of  the  more  modern  and 
cultivated  languages.  It  should  find  adequate  ex¬ 
pressions  for  the  new  thoughts  and  ideas  which  the 
new  learning  would  introduce  into  it  directly  or 
indirectly.  The  medieval  translations  from  the 
Arabic  should  be  retranslated  into  the  new  Hebrew, 
he  held,  and  he  furnished  an  example  by  recasting 
the  first  part  of  Maimuni’s  Moreh  Nebukim.  His 
modernized  version,  lucid  and  fluent,  printed  along¬ 
side  of  Ibn  Tibbon’s,  presents  a  striking  contrast  to 
the  stiffness  and  obscurity  of  the  Provengal  scholar’s. 
Levin  was  also  the  first  to  write  in  the  Yiddish, 
or  Judeo-German,  dialect,  for  the  instruction  of 
the  masses,  which  made  him  the  butt  of  more 
than  one  satire.  But  what  was  generally  regarded 
as  a  degrading  task  was  fraught  with  the  greatest 

100 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION 


consequences  to  the  Haskalah.  To  this  day  Yid¬ 
dish  has  continued  an  important  medium  for  dis¬ 
seminating  culture  among  Russian  Jews,  both  in  the 
Old  World  and  in  the  New.57 

The  century  remarkable  among  other  things  for 
encyclopedia  enterprises, — Chambers’  Encyclopedia 
in  England,  the  Universal  Lexicon  in  Germany, 
and  that  wonderful  and  monumental  work,  the 
Encyclopedic  in  France — saw,  before  its  close,  a 
similar  attempt,  in  miniature,  in  Hebrew  and  by  a 
Slavonic  Maskil.  Whether  the  Hebrew  encyclo¬ 
pedist  was  influenced  by  the  example  of  Dr.  Tobias 
Cohn’s  Ma'aseh  Tobiah ,  mentioned  above,  or  was 
unconsciously  imbued  with  the  prevailing  tendency 
of  the  times,  it  is  impossible  to  tell.  In  any  event, 
he  resorted  to  the  same  means,  and  presented  the 
Jewish  world  with  a  volume  containing  a  little  of 
every  science  known,  under  the  innocent  name  The 
Book  of  the  Covenant  ( Sefer  ha-Berit,  Briinn, 
1797)- 

The  book  appeared  anonymously.  This,  the 
author  assures  us,  was  due  not  to  humbleness  of 
spirit,  but  to  a  vow.  His  diligence  and  constant 
application  had  greatly  impaired  his  eyes.  He 
vowed  that  if  God  restored  his  sight,  and  enabled 
him  to  finish  his  task,  he  would  publish  the  book 

101 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

without  disclosing  his  authorship.  God  hearkened 
unto  his  prayers,  and  the  work  was  soon  completed. 
But  an  unforeseen  trouble  arose.  His  book  was 
ascribed  “  by  some  to  the  sage  of  Berlin,  by  others 
to  the  Gaon  of  Vilna,  and  by  many  to  the  united 
efforts  of  a  coterie  of  scholars,  for  it  could  not  be 
believed  that  so  many  and  diverse  sciences  could  be 
mastered  by  one  person.”  Moreover,  the  author 
was  censured  for  being  afraid  to  come  out  openly 
and  boldly  as  a  champion  of  Haskalah.38  In  spite 
of  obstacles  and  strictures,  the  book  met  with  suc¬ 
cess  surpassing  the  author’s  expectations.  It  found 
its  way  not  only  into  Russia,  Poland,  and  Germany, 
but  even  into  France,  Italy,  England,  Holland,  and 
Palestine.  An  edition  of  two  thousand  copies  was 
entirely  exhausted,  unusual  at  a  time  when  books 
were  costly  and  money  was  scarce,  and  another 
edition  was  issued.  What  Phinehas  Elijah  (Hur- 
witz)  of  Vilna  had  sown  in  tears,  he  lived  to  reap 
in  joy. 

There  was  a  crying  need  in  Russia  for  a  work 
of  the  sort.  In  Germany  the  very  Government 
encouraged  organizations  and  publications  aiming 
at  enlightenment.  Accordingly,  a  Society  for  the 
Promotion  of  the  Good  and  the  Noble  was  started, 
and  the  Meassef  was  published.  In  Russo-Poland 

102 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION 


not  even  a  Hebrew  printing-press  was  permitted, 
and  certainly  no  periodical  publications  would 
have  been  tolerated.  Phinehas  Elijah,  therefore, 
grasped  the  opportunity,  and  showed  himself  equal 
to  it.  His  aim  was,  like  that  of  the  French  ency¬ 
clopedists,  to  lead  his  readers  “  through  nature  to 
God.”  He  gives  an  account  of  the  various  sciences, 
natural  and  philosophical,  as  a  prolegomenon  to  the 
study  of  theology,  even  of  the  mystic  teachings  of 
Vital’s  Gates  of  Holiness.  Withal  he  evinces  a 
sound  intellect  and  refined,  if  rudimentary,  taste. 
He  decries  the  “  ancestor  worship  ”  that  rendered 
the  Jew  of  his  day  a  fossil  specimen  of  an  extinct 
species.  The  present  is  superior  to  the  past,  “  a 
dwarf  on  a  giant’s  shoulder  seeth  farther  than  doth 
the  giant  himself.”  He  ridicules  the  base  and  de¬ 
grading  habit  of  dedicating  books  to  “  benefactors, 
friends,  lovers,  parents,  men,  or  women.”  His 
work  was  written  for  the  glory  of  God,  and  he 
dedicates  it  to  eternal,  all-conquering  truth.39 

All  these  Maskilim,  so  many  hands  reaching  out 
into  the  light,  were  both  the  cause  and  the  conse¬ 
quence  of  the  longing  for  enlightenment  character¬ 
istic  at  all  times  of  the  Slavonic  Jew.  Graetz  and 
his  followers  among  the  latter-day  Maskilim  de¬ 
lighted  in  calling  them  “  they  that  walk  in  dark- 

103 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


ness.”  Facts,  however,  prove  that  at  no  time  be¬ 
fore  Nicholas  I  was  education  per  se  regarded  with 
the  least  suspicion,  though  the  Talmud  was  given 
the  preference.  As  in  the  pre-Haskalah  period, 
the  greatest  Talmudists  deemed  it  a  sacred  duty 
to  perfect  themselves  in  some  branch  of  secular 
science.  When,  in  1710,  a  terrible  plague  broke 
out  in  his  native  town,  Rabbi  Jonathan  of  Risenci 
(Grodno)  vowed  that,  “  if  he  were  spared,  he 
would  disseminate  a  knowledge  of  astronomy 
among  his  countrymen.”  To  fulfil  the  vow  he  went 
to  Germany  (1725),  where,  though  blind,  he  de¬ 
voted  himself  assiduously  first  to  the  acquisition  of 
astronomy,  then  to  writing  on  it.40  Baruch  Yavan 
of  Volhynia,  who  more  than  any  one  exposed 
the  impostures  of  Jacob  Frank,  “spoke  and 
wrote  Hebrew,  Polish,  German,  and  probably 
French,”  and  his  accomplishments  and  address 
won  him  the  admiration  of  Count  Briihl,  the 
virtual  ruler  of  Poland,  and  the  favor  of  the 
highest  officials  at  St.  Petersburg.  His  associate 
in  the  righteous  fight,  Bima  Speir  of  Mohilev,  was 
also  possessed  of  a  thorough  command  of  the  lan¬ 
guage  of  Russia,  and  was  well  posted  in  its  litera¬ 
ture,  history,  and  politics.  The  Pinczovs,  descend¬ 
ants  of  Rabbi  Polack,  connected  with  the  most 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION 


eminent  rabbinical  families,  and  themselves  famous 
for  piety  and  erudition,  produced  many  works 
on  mathematics  and  philosophy.  Mendelssohn’s 
translation  of  the  Pentateuch  was  at  first  hailed 
with  joy,  and  was  recommended  by  the  most  zealous 
rabbis.  Doctor  Hurwitz  of  Vilna  did  not  hesitate 
to  dedicate  his  'Ammude  Bet  Yehudah  to  Wes- 
sely,  who  was  more  popular  in  Russo-Poland  than 
in  Germany.  The  whole  edition  of  his  Yen  Leba¬ 
non,  which  fell  fiat  in  the  latter  country,  though 
offered  gratis,  was  sold  when  introduced  into  the 
former.41  Joseph  Pesseles’  correspondence  concern¬ 
ing  Dubno,  with  David  Friedlander,  the  disciple  of 
Mendelssohn  (1773),  proves  the  high  esteem  in 
which  the  liberal-minded  savants  of  Berlin  were  held 
in  Russia.  The  rabbis  of  Brest,  Slutsk,  and  Lublin 
gave  laudatory  recommendations  to  Judah  Lob 
Margolioth’s  popular  works  of  natural  science, 
which  form  a  little  encyclopedia  by  themselves. 
Margolioth  was  the  grandson  of  Mordecai  Jaffe, 
himself  rabbi  successively  at  Busnov,  Szebrszyn, 
Polotsk,  Lesla,  and  Frankfort-on-the-Oder  (d. 
1 8 1 1 ) .  The  writings  of  Baruch  Schick  of  Shklov, 
referred  to  above,  were  accorded  the  same  welcome. 
His  translation  of  Euclid  and  his  treatises  on  trigo¬ 
nometry,  astronomy  (' Ammude  ha-Shamayim)  ,and 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

anatomy  ( Tiferet  Adam )  won  the  admiration  of 
rabbis  as  well  as  laymen.  Epitaphs  of  the  day  con¬ 
tain  the  statement  that  the  deceased  was  not  only 
“  at  home  in  all  the  chambers  of  the  Torah,”  but 
also  in  “  philosophy  and  the  seven  sciences.”  And 
this,  exaggerated  though  it  may  be,  must  be  seen  to 
contain  a  kernel  of  the  truth,  when  we  recall  that 
among  Maimon’s  intimate  friends  was  the  rabbi 
of  Kletzk,  Lithuania;  that  in  the  humble  dwelling 
of  his  father  there  were  works  on  historical,  astro¬ 
nomical,  and  philosophical  subjects;  that  the  chief 
rabbi  of  a  neighboring  town,  Rabbi  Samson  of 
Slonim,  who,  according  to  Fiinn,  “  had  in  his  youth 
lived  for  a  while  in  Germany,  learned  the  German 
language  there,  and  made  himself  acquainted  in 
some  measure  with  the  sciences,”  continued  his 
study  of  the  sciences,  and  soon  collected  a  fair 
library  of  German  books.43  Saadia,  Bahya,  Halevi, 
Ibn Ezra,  Crescas,  Bedersi,  Levi  ben  Gerson  (whom 
Goldenthal  calls  the  Hebrew  Kant),  Albo,  Abar- 
banel,  and  others  whose  works  deserve  a  high  place 
in  the  history  of  Jewish  philosophy,  were  on  the 
whole  fairly  represented  in  the  libraries,  and  dili¬ 
gently  studied  in  the  numerous  yeshibot  and  batte 
midrashim. 

Thus  the  enlightenment  which  dawned  upon 

106 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION 


France,  Germany,  and  England  cast  a  glow  even 
on  the  Slavonic  Jews,  despite  the  Chinese  wall  of 
disabilities  that  hemmed  them  in.  Unfortunately, 
this  only  helped  to  render  them  dissatisfied  with 
their  wretched  lot,  without  affording  them  the 
means  of  ameliorating  it.  While  the  Jews  in  West¬ 
ern  Europe  profited  and  were  encouraged  by  the 
example  of  their  Christian  neighbors;  while,  in 
addition  to  their  innate  thirst  for  learning,  they 
had  everywhere  else  political  and  civil  preferments 
to  look  forward  to,  in  Russo-Poland  not  only  were 
such  outside  stimuli  absent,  but  the  Slavonic  Jews 
had  to  struggle  against  obstacles  and  hindrances  at 
every  step.  No  such  heaven  on  earth  could  be 
dreamed  of  there.  The  country  was  still  in  a  most 
barbarous  state.  Those  who  wished  to  perfect 
themselves  in  any  of  the  sciences  had  to  leave  home 
and  all  and  go  to  a  foreign  land,  and  had  to  study, 
as  they  were  bidden  to  study  the  Talmud,  u  lish- 
mah,”  that  is,  for  its  own  sake.  This  is  the  distin¬ 
guishing  feature  between  the  German  and  Slavonic 
Maskilim  during  the  eighteenth  century.  The  cry  of 
the  former  was,  “  Become  learned,  lest  the  nations 
say  we  are  not  civilized  and  deny  us  the  wealth, 
respect,  and  especially  the  equality  we  covet !  ”  The 
latter  were  humbly  seeking  after  the  truth,  either 

107 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

because  they  could  better  elucidate  the  Talmud, 
or  because,  as  they  held,  it  was  their  truth,  of  which 
the  nations  had  deprived  them  during  their  long 
exile.43  They  were  unlike  their  German  brethren 
in  another  respect.  Almost  all  of  them  were  “  self- 
made  men,”  autodidacts  in  the  truest  sense.  Lack¬ 
ing  the  advantages  of  secular  schools,  they  culled 
their  first  information  from  scanty,  antiquated  He¬ 
brew  translations.  Maimon  learned  the  Roman 
alphabet  from  the  transliteration  of  the  titles  on  the 
fly-leaves  of  some  Talmudic  tracts;  Doctor  Behr, 
from  Wolff’s  Mathematics.  But  no  sooner  was  the 
impetus  given  than  it  was  followed  by  an  insatiable 
craving  for  more  and  more  of  the  intellectual 
manna,  for  a  wider  and  wider  horizon.  “  Look,” 
says  Wessely,  “  look  at  our  Russian  and  Polish 
brethren  who  immigrate  hither,  men  great  in  Torah, 
yet  admirers  of  the  sciences,  which,  without  the 
guiding  help  of  teachers,  they  all  master  to  such 
perfection  as  to  surpass  even  a  Gentile  sage!  ”  44 
Such  self-education  was,  of  course,  not  without  un¬ 
favorable  results.  Never  having  enjoyed  the  ad¬ 
vantage  of  a  systematic  elementary  training,  the 
enthusiasts  sometimes  lacked  the  very  rudiments 
of  knowledge,  though  engaged  in  the  profoundest 
speculations  of  philosophy.  “  As  our  mothers  in 

108 


THE  PERIOD  OF  TRANSITION 


Egypt  gave  birth  to  their  children  before  the  mid¬ 
wife  came,”  writes  Pinsker  somewhat  later,45  “  even 
so  it  is  with  the  intellectual  products  of  our  breth¬ 
ren:  before  one  becomes  acquainted  with  the  gram¬ 
mar  of  a  language,  he  masters  its  classic  and  scien¬ 
tific  literature !  ” 

Steadily  though  slowly,  brighter,  if  not  better, 
days  were  coming.  “  Thought  once  awakened  shall 
not  again  slumber.”  As  Carlyle  says  of  the  French 
of  that  period,  it  became  clear  for  the  first  time 
to  the  upturned  eyes  of  the  Jews,  “  that  Thought 
has  actually  a  kind  of  existence  in  other  kingdoms 
[than  the  Talmud] ;  that  some  glimmerings  of  civi¬ 
lization  had  dawned  here  and  there  on  the  human 
species.”  They  begin  to  try  all  things;  they  visit 
Germany,  France,  Denmark,  Holland,  even  Eng¬ 
land;  learn  their  literatures,  study  in  their  univer¬ 
sities,  and  contribute  their  quota  to  the  apologetic, 
controversial,  scientific,  and  philosophic  investiga¬ 
tions  “  with  a  candor  and  real  love  of  improve¬ 
ment  which  give  the  best  omens  of  a  still  higher 
success. ”  Fortune,  indeed,  has  cast  them  also  into 
a  cavern,  and  they  are  groping  around  darkly.  But 
this  prisoner,  too,  is  a  giant,  and  he  will,  at  length, 
burst  forth  as  a  giant  into  the  light  of  day. 

[Notes,  pp.  3 10-3 14.] 

109 


CHAPTER  III 


THE  DAWN  OF  HASKALAH 
1794-1840 

A  glimmer  of  light  pierced  the  Russian  sky  at 
the  accession  of  Catherine  II  (1762-1796).  This 
“  Semiramis  of  the  North,”  the  admirer  of  Buffon, 
Montesquieu,  Diderot,  and,  more  especially,  Vol¬ 
taire,  whose  motto,  N’en  croyez  rien,  she  adopted, 
endeavored,  and  for  a  while  not  without  success,  to 
introduce  into  her  own  country  the  spirit  of  toler¬ 
ance  which  pervaded  France.  Her  ukases  were 
intended  for  all  alike,  “  without  distinction  of  re¬ 
ligion  and  nationality.”  Her  regard  for  her  Jew¬ 
ish  citizens  she  showed  by  allowing  them  to  settle 
in  the  interior,  establish  printing-presses  (Janu¬ 
ary  27,  1783),  and  become  civil  and  Govern¬ 
ment  officers  (April  2,  1785).  In  the  edict  pro¬ 
mulgated  by  Governor-General  Chernyshev  it  is 
stated  that  “  religious  liberty  and  inviolability  of 
property  are  hereby  granted  to  all  subjects  of  Rus¬ 
sia  and  certainly  to  the  Jews;  for  the  humanitarian 

110 


THE  DAWN  OF  HASKALAH 


principles  of  her  Majesty  do  not  permit  the  exclu¬ 
sion  of  the  Jews  alone  from  the  favors  shown  to 
all,  so  long  as  they,  as  faithful  subjects,  continue  to 
employ  themselves,  as  hitherto,  with  commerce 
and  trade,  each  according  to  his  vocation.”  That 
she  remained  true  to  her  promise,  we  see  from  the 
numerous  privileges  enjoyed  by  many  Jews,  who 
began  to  frequent  Moscow  and  St.  Petersburg  and 
reside  there  for  business  purposes. 

Paul  (1796-1801),  too,  was  kindly  disposed 
toward  the  Jews,  and  permitted  them  to  live  in 
Courland;  and  when  Alexander  I  (1801-1825) 
became  czar,  their  hopes  turned  into  certainty. 
Alexander  I  did,  indeed,  appear  a  most  promising 
ruler  at  his  accession.  The  theories  he  had  acquired 
from  Laharpe  he  fully  intended  to  apply  to  prac¬ 
tical  life.  Like  Catherine,  he  wished  to  rule  in 
equity  and  promote  the  welfare  of  his  subjects  irre¬ 
spective  of  race  or  creed.  He  ordered  a  commis¬ 
sion  to  investigate  the  status  of  the  Russian  Jews 
(December  9,  1802).  The  result  was  the  polo- 
zheniye  (enactment)  of  December  9,  1804,  accord¬ 
ing  to  which  Jews  were  to  be  eligible  to  one-third 
of  all  municipal  offices;  they  were  to  be  permitted 
to  establish  factories,  become  agriculturists,  and 
either  attend  the  schools  and  colleges  of  the  empire 

111 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

on  the  same  footing  as  subjects  of  the  Christian 
faith,  or,  if  they  desired,  found  and  maintain 
schools  of  their  own.  The  approach  of  the  great 
Usurper  and  the  crushing  defeat  the  Russians  sus¬ 
tained  at  the  battle  of  Friedland  (June  4,  1808) 
also  favored  the  advance  of  the  Jews.  As  the  short, 
but  troublous,  reign  of  Paul  and  his  wars  with  Tur¬ 
key,  Persia,  Prussia,  Poland,  and  Sweden  had  im¬ 
poverished  the  country  and  depleted  the  treasury, 
the  shrewd  Alexander  was  not  averse  from  appeal¬ 
ing  to  Jews  for  help.  Of  course,  as  in  many  more 
enlightened  countries  and  in  more  modern  times, 
most  of  the  privileges  were  merely  paper  privi¬ 
leges.  Few  of  them  ever  went  into  effect.  The 
noble  intentions  of  the  enlightened  rulers  were 
steadily  thwarted  by  bigoted  councillors  and  jealous 
merchants.  Every  favor  shown  the  Jews  aroused 
a  storm  of  protests,  which  resulted  in  numerous  in¬ 
fringements.  The  Jews  were  compelled  to  pay 
for  the  good  intentions  of  Catherine  with  a  double 
tax  (June  25,  1794) ,  and,  during  Paul’s  reign,  with¬ 
out  the  emperor’s  knowledge,  a  law  was  enacted 
requiring  of  Jews  double  payment  of  the  guild 
license.  In  spite  of  all  efforts,  the  Jews,  instead  of 
being  emancipated  politically,  were  burdened  with 
additional  discriminations.1 


112 


THE  DAWN  OF  HASKALAH 

Had  not  the  wheel  of  progress  suddenly  stopped 
revolving,  Russian  Jews  might  have  constituted  one 
of  the  most  useful  as  well  as  most  intellectual  ele¬ 
ments  in  the  vast  empire.  As  it  was,  the  kindly  in¬ 
tention  of  czar  or  czarina  sufficed  to  arouse  them 
from  the  asthenia  to  which  they  were  reduced  for 
want  of  freedom.  The  times  were  rife  with  excite¬ 
ment,  and  the  Jewish  atmosphere  with  expectancy. 
The  mighty  changes  which  were  taking  place  in 
Russia  and  Poland;  the  dismemberment  of  the  lat¬ 
ter;  the  annexation  of  Balta  (1791),  Lithuania 
( 1794) ,  and  Courland  (1797)  to  the  former ;  the 
short-lived  yet  potent  German  rule  in  Byelostok 
(1793-1807),  and  the  rude  but  memorable  contact 
with  France  (1807-1812),  these  and  many  other 
important  happenings  in  a  brief  span  of  time  had 
a  telling  effect  upon  the  diverse  races  under  the 
dominion  of  Russia,  and  among  them  not  the  least 
upon  the  Jewish  race.  Everywhere  the  desire  for 
“  liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity  ”  began  to  mani¬ 
fest  itself.  In  Courland,  the  most  German  of  Rus¬ 
sian  provinces,  Georg  Gottfried  Mylich,  a  Luth¬ 
eran  pastor  at  Nerft,  made  a  touching  appeal  (ab. 
1787)  in  German  on  behalf  of  the  Jews,  insisting 
that  the  word  Jew  “  should  not  be  taken  to  indicate 
a  class  of  people  different  from  us,  but  only  a  dif- 

113 


8 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

ferent  religious  body;  and  as  regards  his  nationality, 
it  should  not  hinder  him  from  obtaining  citizen’s 
rights  and  liberties  equal  to  those  of  the  people  of 
Sleswick,  the  Saxons,  Danes,  Swedes,  Swiss,  French, 
and  Italians,  who  also  live  among  us.”  In  Poland, 
Tadeusz  Czacki,  the  historian,  wrote  his  Discourse 
on  the  Jews  (Rosprava  o  ZhydakhjVWniL,  1807),  in 
which  he  deplores  that  Jews  “  experienced  indul¬ 
gence  rarely,  oppression  often,  and  contempt  nearly 
always  ”  under  the  most  Christian  governments, 
and  suggests  a  plan  for  reforming  their  condition. 
But  the  main  appeal  for  freedom  came,  as  might 
have  been  expected,  from  the  Jews  themselves. 
Contemporaneous  with,  if  not  before,  Michel  Beer’s 
Appel  a  la  justice  des  nations  et  des  rois,  a  Lith¬ 
uanian  Jew,  during  his  imprisonment  in  Nieszvicz 
on  a  false  charge,  wrote  a  work  in  Polish  on  the 
Jewish  problem,2  while  in  1 803  Lob,  or  Leon,  Neba- 
khovich,  an  intimate  friend  of  Count  Shakovskoy, 
published  The  Cry  of  the  Daughter  of  Judah 
( V opli  Docheri  Yudeyskoy) ,  the  first  defence  of 
the  Russian  Jew  in  the  Russian  language.  The  fob 
lowers  of  the  religion  of  love  are  implored  to  love  a 
Jew  because  he  is  a  Jew,  and  they  are  assured  that 
the  Jew  who  preserves  his  religion  undefiled  can  be 
neither  a  bad  man  nor  a  bad  citizen. 


114 


THE  DAWN  OF  HASKALAH 


But  the  Jews  did  not  wait  for  their  dreams  to 
be  realized.  They  threw  themselves  into  the  swirl 
of  their  country’s  ambition,  as  if  they  had  never 
received  anything  other  than  the  tenderness  of  a 
devoted  mother  at  her  hands.  They  were  “  kin¬ 
dled  in  a  common  blaze  ”  of  patriotism  with  the 
rest  of  the  population.  That  in  spite  of  all  accusa¬ 
tions  to  the  contrary  they  remained  loyal  to  Poland, 
is  amply  proved  by  the  history  of  that  unfortunate 
country.  The  characteristic  kapota  of  the  Polish 
Jew,  his  whole  garb,  including  the  yarmulka  (under 
cap),  is  simply  the  old  Polish  costume,  which  the 
Jews  retained  after  the  Poles  had  adopted  the  Ger¬ 
man  form  of  dress.8  “  When,  in  the  year  1794,” 
says  Czacki,  “  despair  armed  the  [Polish]  capital, 
the  Jews  were  not  afraid  of  death,  but,  mingling 
with  the  troops  and  the  populace,  they  proved  that 
danger  did  not  terrify  them,  and  that  the  cause  of 
the  fatherland  was  dear  to  them.”  With  the  per¬ 
mission  of  Kosciusko,  Colonel  Joselovich  Berek, 
later  killed  at  the  battle  of  Kotzk  ( 1 809 ) ,  formed 
a  regiment  of  light  cavalry  consisting  entirely  of 
Jews,  which  distinguished  itself  especially  at  the 
siege  of  Warsaw.  Most  of  the  members  perished 
in  defence  of  the  suburb  of  Praga.  In  the  agony  of 
death,  Rabbi  Hayyim  longed  for  good  tidings,  that 

115 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

he  might  die  in  peace.  And  when  the  fight  was 
over,  Zbitkover  expended  two  barrels  of  money, 
one  filled  with  gold  ducats  and  one  with  silver 
rubles,  for  the  live  and  dead  soldiers  who  were 
brought  to  him.4  Indeed,  Prince  Czartorisky  was 
so  convinced  of  their  patriotism,  that  he  always 
advocated  the  same  rights  for  the  Polish  Jews  as 
were  claimed  for  the  Polish  Gentiles,  entrusted  his 
children  to  the  care  of  Mendel  Levin  of  Satanov, 
and  instructed  his  son,  Prince  Ladislaus,  always  to 
remain  their  friend.5 

But  when,  in  spite  of  struggle  and  sacrifice, 
the  doom  “  finis  Poloniae  ”  was  sounded,  and  a 
large  portion  of  the  once  powerful  empire  was  in¬ 
corporated  into  Russia,  we  find  the  Jews  bearing 
their  sorrow  patiently,  and  willingly  performing 
their  duties  as  subjects  to  their  new  masters.  Their 
attachment  to  their  czar  and  country  was  not  shaken 
in  the  least  when,  in  1812,  Napoleon  made  them 
flattering  promises  to  secure  their  services  in  his 
behalf.  Rabbi  Shneor  Zalman,  the  eminent  leader 
of  the  Lithuanian  Hasidim,  hearing  of  the  in¬ 
vasion  of  the  French  army,  spent  many  days  in 
prayer  and  fasting  for  the  success  of  the  Russians, 
and  fled  on  the  Sabbath  day,  not  to  be  contaminated 
by  contact  with  the  “  godless  French.”  When  Na- 

116 


THE  DAWN  OF  HASKALAH 


poleon  was  finally  defeated,  the  event  was  cele¬ 
brated  both  at  home  and  in  the  synagogue,  and  Rus¬ 
sian  soldiers  were  everywhere  welcomed  by  Jews 
with  gifts  and  good  cheer.6  Lilienthal  relates  that 
the  Jews  succeeded  in  intercepting  a  courier  who  car¬ 
ried  the  plan  of  operations  of  the  French  army, 
and  Alexander  declared  in  a  dispatch  that  Jews  had 
opened  the  eyes  of  the  Russians,  and  the  Govern¬ 
ment,  therefore,  felt  itself  bound  to  them  by  eternal 
gratitude.7  It  is  to  this  proof  of  patriotism  that 
some  attribute  Alexander’s  interest  in  the  Jews  and 
his  order  that  three  deputies  should  reside  in  St. 
Petersburg  to  represent  them  in  Russia,  and  in 
Poland  a  committee  consisting  of  three  Christians 
and  eight  Jews  should  be  appointed  to  devise  ways 
and  means  of  ameliorating  their  condition.8 

The  times  were  promising  in  other  respects.  In 
that  critical  period,  the  Government,  reposing  but 
little  confidence  in  Russian  merchants,  whose  busi¬ 
ness  motto  was  “  No  swindle,  no  sale,”  allowed 
several  Jews  to  become  Government  contractors 
(podradchiki) .  These,  while  rendering  valuable 
services,  amassed  considerable  fortunes.  Notwith¬ 
standing  the  law  restricting  Jewish  residence  to 
the  Pale  of  Settlement,  Catherine  II  speaks  of  Jews 
who  resided  in  St.  Petersburg  for  many  years,  and 

117 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


lodged  in  the  house  of  a  priest,  who  had  been  her 
confessor.  Moreover,  Jews  contributed  not  a  little 
to  the  liberal  policy  of  Alexander  I.  Among  them 
were  Eliezer  Dillon  of  Nieszvicz  (d.  1838),  who 
was  honored  by  the  emperor  with  a  gold  medal 
“  for  faithful  and  conscientious  services,”  and  was 
given  an  audience  by  his  Majesty,  at  which  he 
pleaded  the  cause  of  his  coreligionists;9  Nathan 
Notkin,  who  mitigated  the  possible  effect  of  Sena¬ 
tor  Dyerzhavin’s  baneful  opinions  concerning  Jews, 
as  expressed  in  his  report  ( Mnyenie ,  September, 
1800),  and  who  suggested  the  establishment  of 
schools  for  children  and  for  adults  in  Yekaterino- 
slav  and  elsewhere;  Abraham  Peretz,  the  personal 
friend  of  Speransky,  Dyerzhavin,  and  Potemkin, 
and  a  brilliant  financier,  whose  high  standing 
enabled  him  to  be  a  power  for  good  in  the  councils 
concerning  Jews;10  and  his  father-in-law,  Joshua 
Zeitlin  (1724-1822).  Zeitlin  was  a  rare  phenom¬ 
enon,  reminding  one  of  the  golden  days  of  Jewish 
Spain.  His  knowledge  of  finance  and  political 
economy  won  him  the  admiration  of  Prince  Potem¬ 
kin,  the  protection  of  Czarina  Catherine,  and  the 
esteem  of  Alexander  I,  who  appointed  him  court 
councillor  (nadvorny  sovyetnik) .  But  his  mercan¬ 
tile  pursuits  did  not  hinder  him  from  study,  and  his 

118 

1 

,  i 

i. 


THE  DAWN  OF  FIASKALAH 


high  living  did  not  interfere  with  his  high  thinking. 
His  palatial  home  at  Ustye,  in  Mohilev,  became  a 
refuge  for  all  needy  Talmudists  and  Maskilim, 
whom  he  helped  with  the  liberality  of  a  Maecenas; 
he  conducted  an  extensive  correspondence  on  rab¬ 
binic  literature,  and  for  many  years  supported 
Doctor  Schick  and  Mendel  Levin.  For  Doctor 
Schick  he  built  a  laboratory,  and  filled  his  library 
with  rare  manuscripts  and  works  on  Jewish  and 
secular  subjects.11 

Even  among  the  conservative  Talmudists  signs 
of  improvement  were  not  wanting.  The  Gaon 
became  the  centre  of  a  group  of  enlightened  friends 
and  disciples,  who  continued  in  his  footsteps  after 
his  death.  His  son,  Rabbi  Abraham,  who  pub¬ 
lished  and  edited  many  of  his  works,  a  task  requir¬ 
ing  no  small  amount  of  acumen  and  Talmudic  eru¬ 
dition,12  was  also  the  author  of  books  on  geography, 
mathematics,  and  physics.  His  pupils,  such  as 
Doctor  Schick  and  Rabbi  Benjamin  and  Rabbi  Zel- 
mele,  influenced  their  contemporaries  either  directly, 
by  bringing  them  in  touch  with  the  new  learning,  or 
indirectly,  by  reforming  the  school  system  and  the 
method  of  Talmud  study.13  Of  Rabbi  Zelmele, 
who  like  his  master  became  the  hero  .pf  a  wonder- 
biography  written  by  his  disciple  Ezekiel  Feivel 

119 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

of  Plungian,  we  are  told  that  he  regarded  grammar 
as  indispensable  to  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
Bible  and  the  Talmud,  pleaded  for  a  return  to  the 
order  of  study  prescribed  in  the  Pirke  Abot,  and 
complained  that,  owing  to  the  neglect  of  Aramaic, 
the  benefits  of  comparative  philology  were  lost  and 
unknown.  He  declared  also  that  while  he  believed 
in  all  the  Bible  contains,  the  stories  in  the  Talmud 
are,  for  the  most  part,  legends  and  parables  used 
for  the  purpose  of  illustration.14 

Towering  above  all  the  disciples  of  the  Gaon, 
the  most  outspoken  in  behalf  of  enlightenment  is 
Manasseh  of  Ilye  (1767-1831).  At  a  very  early 
age  he  attracted  the  attention  of  Talmudists  by  his 
originality  and  boldness.  In  his  unflinching  de¬ 
termination  to  get  at  the  truth,  he  did  not  shrink 
from  criticising  Rashi  and  the  Shulhan  ' Aruk ,  and 
dared  to  interpret  some  parts  of  the  Mishnah  dif¬ 
ferently  from  the  explanation  given  in  the  Gemara. 
With  all  his  admiration  for  the  Gaon,  but  for 
whom,  he  claimed,  the  Torah  would  have  been 
forgotten,  he  also  had  points  of  sympathy  with  the 
Hasidim,  for  whose  leader,  Shneor  Zalman  of  Ladi, 
he  had  the  highest  respect.  Like  many  of  his 
contemporaries,  he  determined  to  go  to  Berlin.  He 
started  on  his  way,  but  was  stopped  at  Konigsberg 

120 


MAX  LILIENTHAL 

1815-1882 


THE  DAWN  OF  HASKALAH 


by  some  orthodox  coreligionists,  and  compelled  to 
return  to  Russia.  This  did  not  prevent  his  perfect¬ 
ing  himself  in  German,  Polish,  natural  philosophy, 
mechanics,  and  even  strategics.  On  the  last  subject 
he  wrote  a  book,  which  was  burnt  by  his  friends, 
“  lest  the  Government  suspect  that  Jews  are  making 
preparations  for  war!  ”  But  it  is  not  so  much  his 
Talmudic  or  secular  scholarship  that  makes  him 
interesting  to  us  to-day.  His  true  greatness  is  re¬ 
vealed  by  his  attempts,  the  first  made  in  his  genera¬ 
tion  perhaps,  to  reconcile  the  Hasidim  with  the 
Mitnaggedim,  and  these  in  turn  with  the  Maskilim. 
He  spoke  a  good  word  for  manual  labor,  and 
proved  from  the  Talmud  that  burdensome  laws 
should  be  abolished.  His  Pesher  Dabar  (Vilna, 
1807)  and  Alfe  Menasheh  (ibid.,  1827,  i860)  are 
monuments  to  the  advanced  views  of  the  author. 
In  the  Hebrew  literature  of  his  time,  they  are 
equalled  only  by  the  A mmude  Bet  Yehudah  and  the 
Hekal  'Oneg  of  Doctor  Hurwitz.15 

This  short  period  of  enlightenment  and  tolerance, 
inaugurated  by  a  semblance  of  equality,  indicates 
the  native  optimism  of  the  Slavonic  Jew.  For  a 
while  a  cessation  of  hostilities  was  evident  in  the 
camp  of  Israel.  The  reforms  introduced  by  the 
Gaon,  and  propagated  by  his  disciples,  began  to 

121 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

bear  fruit.  Hasidism  itself  underwent  a  radical 
change  under  the  leadership  of  Rabbi  Shneor  Zal¬ 
man  of  Ladi  (1747-1813)  and  Jacob  Joseph  of 
Polonnoy,  who,  unlike  their  colleagues  of  the  Uk¬ 
raine,  were  learned  in  the  Talmud  and  familiar 
with  the  sciences.  Protests  by  Hasidim  themselves 
against  the  irreverent  spirit  that  developed  after 
the  death  of  the  Besht,  had  in  fact  been  heard 
before.  The  saintly  and  retiring  Abraham  Malak 
(d.  1780)  had  denounced,  in  no  uncertain  terms, 
the  gross  conception  held  by  the  Hasidim  of  the 
sublime  teachings  of  their  own  sect.  He  drew  a 
beautiful  picture  of  the  ideal  zaddik,  who  is  11  so 
absorbed  in  meditation  on  the  Divine  wisdom  that 
he  cannot  descend  to  the  lower  steps  upon  which 
ordinary  people  stand.”  16  But  the  more  active 
Rabbi  Shneor,  or  Zalman  Ladier,  as  he  was  usually 
called,  insisted  on  putting  the  zaddik  on  a  par  with 
the  rabbi,  whose  duty  it  is  not  to  work  miracles  but 
to  teach  righteousness.  Assuming  for  his  followers 
the  name  HaBaD,  the  three  letters  of  which  are 
the  initials  of  the  Hebrew  words  for  Wisdom, 
Reason,  and  Knowledge,  he  furthered  the  cause  of 
enlightenment  in  the  only  way  possible  among  his 
adherents.”  How  well  he  succeeded  may  be  in¬ 
ferred  from  the  fact,  trivial  though  it  be,  that  the 

122 


THE  DAWN  OF  HASKALAH 


biography  of  the  Besht,  The  Praises  of  the  Besht 
(i Shihhe  ha-Besht) ,  by  Dob  Bar,  published  in 
Berdichev  (1815),  omits  many  of  the  legends 
about  the  Master  included  in  the  version  published 
the  same  year  in  Kopys.  The  omission  can  be  ex¬ 
plained  only  on  the  ground  that  the  editor,  Judah 
Lob,  who  was  the  son  of  the  author,  did  not  wish 
to  give  offence,  or  he  had  outgrown  the  credulity 
of  his  father.18 

The  feeling  of  tolerance  manifested  itself  also 
in  the  Jewish  attitude  towards  the  Gentiles.  “  O 
that  we  were  identified  with  the  nations  of  our  time, 
created  by  the  same  God,  children  of  one  Father, 
and  did  not  hate  each  other  because  we  are  at 
variance  in  some  views!  ”  This  exclamation  of 
Doctor  Hurwitz  19  found  an  echo  in  the  works  of 
the  other  Maskilim  that  wrote  in  Hebrew,  but  more 
especially  of  those  who  used  a  European  language. 
They  were  deeply  interested  in  whatever  marked  a 
step  forward  in  their  country’s  civilization.  The 
opening  of  a  gymnasium  in  Mitau  (1775)  was  a 
joyful  occasion,  which  inspired  Hurwitz’s  Hebrew 
muse,  and  at  the  centennial  celebration  of  the  sur¬ 
render  of  Riga  to  Peter  the  Great  (July  4,  1810), 
the  craving  of  the  Jewish  heart,  avowed  in  a  Ger¬ 
man  poem,  was  expressed  “  in  the  name  of  the  local 

123 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

Hebrew  community  to  their  Christian  compatriots.” 
tThe  last  stanza  runs  as  follows : 

Grant  us,  who,  like  you,  worship  the  God  above, 

Also  on  earth  to  enjoy  equality  with  you! 

To-day,  while  your  hearts  are  open  to  love, 

Let  us  seal  our  happiness  with  your  love,  too ! 20 

This  desire  for  naturalization  brought  with  it 
an  attempt  at  “  Russification.”  To  show  the  beauty 
of  the  Russian  language,  Baruch  Czatzskes  of  Vol- 
hynia  translated  some  of  the  poems  of  Khersakov 
into  Hebrew,  and  others  published  manuals  for  the 
study  of  Russian  and  Polish.21  Among  the  first 
books  issued  from  the  newly-established  printing- 
press  in  Shklov,  the  centre  of  Jewish  wealth,  re¬ 
finement,  and  culture  at  that  time,  was  the  Zeker 
Rab  with  a  German  translation  (1804).  In  an 
appendix  thereto  the  Shklov  Maskilim  announced 
their  intention  to  publish  a  weekly,  the  first  in  the 
Hebrew  tongue.  Yiddish  was  also  resorted  to  as  a 
medium  for  educating  the  masses,  and  as  early 
as  1813  some  Vilna  Jews  applied  to  the  Govern¬ 
ment  for  permission  to  publish  a  paper  in  that  lan¬ 
guage,  though  it  was  not  until  ten  years  later  ( 1823- 
1824)  that  a  Yiddish  periodical,  Der  Beobachter 
an  der  Weichsel,  appeared  in  Warsaw.  Nor  do 

124 


THE  DAWN  OF  HASKALAH 


we  hear  of  any  opposition  to  the  Government  de¬ 
crees,  issued  probably  at  the  request  of  Dillon,  Not- 
kin,  Peretz,  or  Nebakhovich,  that  the  elders  of  the 
kahals  in  and  after  1808,  and  the  rabbis  of  the  con¬ 
gregations  in  and  after  1812,  be  conversant  with 
either  Russian,  German,  or  Polish.  This  sudden 
Russification  of  the  Jews  amounted  sometimes  to 
no  more  than  a  superficial  imitation  of  Russian 
civilization,  which  pious  rabbis  as  well  as  liberal- 
minded  men  like  Schick,  Margolioth,  Ilye,  and  Hur- 
witz,  felt  impelled  to  call  a  halt  to.  Jews,  espe¬ 
cially  the  rich,  aped  the  Polish  pans.  Their  wives 
dressed  in  Parisian  gowns  of  the  latest  fashion, 
and  their  homes  were  conducted  in  a  manner  so 
luxurious  as  to  arouse  the  envy  of  the  noblemen. 
Israel  waxed  fat  and  kicked.  Their  greatest  care 
was  to  become  wealthy ;  they  pampered  their  bodies 
at  the  expense  of  the  impoverishment  of  their  souls, 
and  some  feared  that  “  with  the  passing  away  of  the 
elder  generation  there  would  not  remain  a  man 
capable  of  filling  the  position  of  rabbi.”  22 

The  privilege  of  attending  public  schools  and 
colleges  further  stimulated  the  Russification  of  the 
Jews.  As  soon  as  these  institutions  of  learning 
were  thrown  open  to  them,  numerous  Jewish  youths 
made  headway  in  all  branches  taught,  especially  in 

125 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


medicine.  That  Alexander’s  benign  decree  of 
November  io,  1811,  issued  through  the  Secretary 
of  State  Speransky,  was  not  always  executed  by  his 
officials  goes  without  saying.  Simeon  Levy  Wolf, 
one  of  the  first  Russo-Jewish  graduates,  was  denied 
his  degree  of  doctor  of  jurisprudence  in  Dorpat 
unless  he  embraced  Christianity.23  When,  in  1819, 
some  of  the  Vilna  graduates  applied  for  the  privi¬ 
lege  of  not  paying  the  double  tax,  they  were  told 
that  they  must  first  renounce  their  faith,  an  excep¬ 
tion  being  made  only  in  favor  of  Arthur  Parlovich. 
Still  the  number  of  Jewish  graduate  physicians  was 
on  the  increase.  Osip  Yakovlevich  Liboschiits, 
who  was  the  son  of  the  famous  physician  of  Vilna, 
took  his  doctor  degree  at  Dorpat  (1806),  became 
court  physician  in  St.  Petersburg,  where  he  founded 
a  hospital  for  children,  and  wrote  extensively  in 
French  on  the  flora  of  his  country.24  The  medical 
institute  of  Vilna  (1803-1833),  afterwards  trans¬ 
ferred  to  Kiev,  became  the  centre  of  attraction  for 
the  Russian  Jewry.  Padua,  Berlin,  Konigsberg, 
Gottingen,  Copenhagen,  Halle,  Amsterdam,  Cam¬ 
bridge,  and  London  were  for  a  third  of  a  century 
replaced  by  the  home  of  the  Gaon  and  of  Doctor 
Liboschiits.  The  first  students  were  recruited  from 
the  bet  ha-midrash,  and  they  frequently  joined, 

126 


THE  DAWN  OF  HASKALAH 

as  in  former  days,  knowledge  of  the  Law  with  the 
practice  of  their  chosen  profession.  Such  were 
Isaac  Markusevich,  whose  annotations  to  the  Shul- 
han  'Aruk  (ab.  1830)  were  published  fifty  years 
later; 33  Joseph  Rosensohn,  the  promising  Tal¬ 
mudist  who  became  rabbi  of  Pyosk  at  the  age  of 
nineteen; 28  and  Kusselyevsky  of  Nieszvicz,  a  stipen¬ 
diary  of  a  Polish  nobleman  and  a  great  favorite 
with  Professor  Frank.  Because  of  his  proficiency, 
he  was  exempted  from  serving  as  a  vratch  (in¬ 
terne),  and  for  his  piety  and  learning  he  was  ad¬ 
dressed  by  Jews  and  Gentiles  as  “  rabbi.”  27 

With  what  dreams  such  happenings  filled  the 
Jewish  heart!  “  Thank  God,”  writes  a  merchant 
of  the  first  guild  in  reply  to  an  inquiry  from  distant 
Bokhara,  “  thank  God,  we  dwell  in  peace  under  the 
sovereignty  of  our  czar  Alexander,  who  has  shown 
us  his  mercy,  and  has  put  us  in  every  respect  on  an 
equality  with  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  land.”  28  But 
a  rude  awakening  was  soon  to  make  the  Jews  aware 
that  their  visions  of  better  days  were  still  far  from 
realization.  In  1815,  Alexander  I  formed  the 
acquaintance  of  Baroness  Kriidener,  and  since  then, 
to  the  satisfaction  of  Prince  Galitzin,  “  with  what 
giant  strides  the  emperor  advanced  in  the  pathway 
of  religion!  ”  His  humanitarian  deeds  gave  way 

127 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


to  a  profound  religious  mysticism.  He  experienced 
a  revulsion  of  feeling  toward  reforms  in  his  vast 
empire,  and,  as  always,  the  Jews  were  the  first 
victims  of  an  ill-boding  change.  The  kindly  mon¬ 
arch  who,  at  Paris,  had  said  to  a  Russo-Jewish 
deputation,  J’ enleverai  le  joug  de  vos  epaules f 
began  to  make  their  yoke  heavier  than  he  had  found 
it.  The  enlightened  czar,  who,  in  striking  a  medal 
commemorating  the  emancipation  of  the  Jews  of 
his  empire,  had  anticipated  Napoleon  by  a  year, 
suddenly  became  a  bigoted  tyrant,  whose  efforts 
were  devoted  to  converting  the  same  Jews  to  Chris¬ 
tianity.  He  who  had  claimed  that  his  greatest 
reward  would  be  to  produce  a  Mendelssohn,  now 
resorted  to  various  expedients,  to  render  education 
unpalatable  to  the  Jews.  The  Jewish  assembly- 
men,  who,  in  1 8 1 6,  soon  after  the  Franco-Russian 
war,  had  been  convoked  to  St.  Petersburg,  were  not 
allowed  to  meet;  and  when,  two  years  later,  they 
did  meet,  their  every  attempt  was  baffled  by  the 
Government.  Jews  were  expelled  systematically 
from  St.  Petersburg  ( 1 8 1 8 ) .  They  were  forbid¬ 
den  to  employ  Christians  as  servants  (May  4, 
1820),  to  immigrate  into  Russia  from  abroad 
(August  10,  1824),  and  reside  in  the  towns  and 
villages  of  Mohilev  and  Vitebsk  (January  13, 


THE  DAWN  OF  HASKALAH 

1825).  Several  years  after  the  double  poll  and 
guild  tax  had  been  abolished  in  Courland  (No¬ 
vember  8,  1 807 ) ,  it  was  restored  with  an  additional 
impost  on  meat  from  cattle  slaughtered  according 
to  the  Jewish  rite  (korobka).  All  this  impover¬ 
ished  the  Jews  to  such  an  extent  that  they  were 
forced  to  sell  the  cravats  of  their  praying  shawls 
(taletim),  in  order  to  defray  the  expense  of  a  sec¬ 
ond  deputation  to  St.  Petersburg.29 

Had  Alexander  I  been  satisfied  with  merely  re¬ 
stricting  the  Jews’  rights,  the  favorable  attitude 
towards  enlightenment  we  have  noticed  above 
would  probably  have  remained  unaltered.  Un¬ 
fortunately,  Alexander  became  a  fanatic  conver- 
sionist.  It  was  a  time  when  missionary  zeal  be¬ 
came  endemic,  and  Baroness  Kriidener’s  influence 
was  strengthened.  The  Reverend  Lewis  Way, 
having  founded  (1808)  the  London  Society  for 
Promoting  Christianity  among  the  Jews,  made  a 
tour  through  Europe,  everywhere  urging  the  Gen¬ 
tiles  to  enfranchise  the  Jews  as  an  inducement  to 
them  to  embrace  Christianity,  the  only  means  of 
hastening  the  advent  of  the  Apostolic  millennium. 
His  Me  moires  sur  Vet  at  des  Israelites  presented  to 
the  Congress  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  (October  11, 
1818)  and  his  visit  to  Russia  resulted  in  an  im- 

129 


9 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

perial  ukase  (March  25,  1817)  organizing  a  Com¬ 
mittee  of  Guardians  for  Israelitish  Christians  (Iz- 
railskiye  Christyanye) .  The  members  of  this  asso¬ 
ciation  were  to  be  granted  land  in  the  northern  or 
southern  provinces  of  Russia  and  to  enjoy  special 
privileges.  The  bait  proved  tempting,  and,  as  a 
consequence,  some  prominent  Maskilim,  too  weak 
to  resist  the  allurements,  precipitated  themselves 
into  the  Greek  Catholic  fold.  Abraham  Peretz, 
financier  and  champion  of  Jews’  rights,  consented 
to  be  converted,  as  also  Lob  Nebakhovich,  the 
dramatist,  whose  plays  were  produced  in  the  Im¬ 
perial  theatre  of  St.  Petersburg  and  performed  in 
the  presence  of  the  emperor.80  Equally  bad,  if  not 
worse,  for  the  cause  of  Haskalah  was  the  conduct 
of  those  who,  disdaining,  or  unable,  to  profess  the 
new  religion,  discarded  every  vestige  of  traditional 
Judaism,  and  deemed  it  their  duty  to  set  an  ex¬ 
ample  of  infidelity  and  sometimes  immorality  to 
their  less  enlightened  coreligionists.  What  Leroy- 
Beaulieu  says  of  Maimon,  “  that  type  of  the  most 
cultured  Jew  to  be  found  before  the  French  Revo¬ 
lution,”  might  more  justly  be  applied  to  many  a  less 
prominent  Maskil  after  him :  “  Despite  his  learn¬ 
ing  and  philosophy  he  sank  deeper  than  the  most 
degraded  of  his  fellow-men,  because  in  repudiating 

130 


THE  DAWN  OF  HASKALAH 

his  ancestral  faith  he  had  lost  the  staff  which, 
through  all  their  humiliations,  served  as  a  prop 
even  to  the  most  debased  of  ancient  Jews.”  81 

Haskalah  thus  having  become  synonymous  with 
apostasy  or  licentiousness,  we  can  easily  understand 
why  the  unsophisticated  among  the  Russian  Jews 
were  so  bitterly  opposed  to  it  from  the  time  the  sad 
truth  dawned  upon  them,  until,  under  Alexander  II, 
their  suspicions  were  somewhat  dissipated.  Pre¬ 
vious  to  the  latter  part  of  the  reign  of  Alexander  I 
the  “  struggle  groups  ”  in  Russian  Jewry  were  at 
first  Frankists  and  anti-Frankists,  and  afterwards 
Hasidim  and  Mitnaggedim.  It  was  a  conflict,  not 
between  religion  and  science,  but  between  religion 
and  what  was  regarded  as  superstition.  Secular 
instruction,  far  from  being  opposed,  was,  as  we 
have  seen,  sought  and  disseminated.  Long  after 
the  pious  element  in  Germany  had  been  aroused 
to  the  dangers  that  lurked  in  the  wake  of  their 
“  Aufklarung,”  and  had  begun  to  endeavor  to 
check  its  further  progress  by  excommunication  and 
other  methods,  the  Russian  Jews  remained  “  seek¬ 
ers  after  light.”  They  might  have  condemned  a 
Maskil,  they  had  not  yet  condemned  Haskalah. 
Mendelssohn’s  German  translation  was  welcomed 
in  Russia  at  its  first  appearance  no  less  than  in 

131 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


Germany,  but  when  some  of  the  children  of  Rabbi 
Moses  ben  Menahem  embraced  the  Christian  faith, 
and  their  father,  as  was  natural,  was  suspected  of 
skepticism,  the  Biur  and  the  Meassefim  were  pro¬ 
nounced,  like  libraries  by  Sir  Anthony  Absolute, 
to  be  “  an  evergreen  tree  of  diabolical  knowl¬ 
edge.”  So  also  with  Wessely’s  Epistles,  which 
were  destroyed  in  public,  together  with  Polonnoy’s 
Toledot  Yaakob  Yosef.  Haskalah  itself  was  not 
impugned,  and  as  theretofore  translations  and  orig¬ 
inal  works  on  science  were  encouraged,  and  the 
wish  was  entertained  that  “  many  shall  run  to  and 
fro,  and  knowledge  shall  be  increased.”  82 

But  the  latest  experiences  in  their  own  country 
put  Haskalah  in  a  very  different  light  from  that  in 
which  they  were  wont  to  regard  it.  Formerly  the 
opposition  to  it  had  been  limited  to  the  very  land 
that  gave  it  birth.  Because  of  their  determination 
to  study,  Solomon  Maimon  was  denied  admission 
to  Berlin,  Manasseh  of  Ilye  was  stopped  in  Konigs- 
berg,  and  Abba  Glusk  Leczeka,  better  known  as 
“  the  Glusker  Maggid,”  the  subject  of  a  poem  by 
Chamisso,  was  persecuted  everywhere.  It  was  Rabbi 
Levin,  of  Berlin,  who  prohibited  the  publication  of 
Wessely’s  works,  and  insisted  that  the  author  be 
expelled  from  the  city.33  It  was  Rabbi  Ezekiel 

182 


THE  DAWN  OF  HASKALAH 


Landau  of  Prague  who,  though  approving  of  Wes- 
sely’s  Yen  Lebanon,  opposed  the  translation  of  the 
Pentateuch  by  Mendelssohn,  while  Rabbi  Horo¬ 
witz  of  Hamburg  denounced  it  in  unmeasured 
terms,  admonishing  his  hearers  to  shun  the  work  as 
unclean,  and  approving  the  action  of  those  persons 
who  had  publicly  burnt  it  in  Vilna  (1782). 
Moses  Sofer  of  Pressburg  adopted  as  his  motto, 
“  Touch  not  the  works  of  the  Dessauer  ”  ( Mendels¬ 
sohn),34  and  seldom  allowed  an  opportunity  to  pass 
without  denouncing  the  Maskilim  of  his  country. 
Now  the  clarion  note  of  anti-Haskalah,  sounded  by 
these  luminaries  in  Israel,  found  an  echo  among  the 
Jews  in  Russia.  They  had  discovered,  to  their  great 
sorrow,  that  like  Elisha  ben  Abuya,  the  apostate 
in  the  Talmud,  “  those  who  once  entered  the  para¬ 
dise  [of  enlightenment]  returned  no  more.”  The 
very  name  of  the  seat  of  Haskalah  was  an  abomi¬ 
nation  to  the  pious.  To  be  called  “  Berlinchick  ” 
or  u  Deitschel  ”  was  tantamount  to  being  called 
infidel  and  epicurean,  anarchist  and  outlaw.  The 
old  instinct  of  self-preservation,  which  turned  Jews 
from  lambs  into  lions,  holding  their  ground  to  the 
last,  asserted  itself  again.  As  the  Talmudic  rabbis 
excluded  certain  books  from  the  Canon,  as  the  study 
of  even  the  Jewish  philosophers  was  later  pro- 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

scribed  by  certain  French  rabbis,  so  the  Russian 
rabbis  laid  the  ban  upon  whatever  savored  of 
German  “  Aufklarerei.” 

Thus  began  the  bitter  fight  against  Haskalah, 
in  which  Hasidim  and  Mitnaggedim,  forgetting 
their  differences,  joined  hands,  and  stood  shoulder 
to  shoulder.  For,  after  all,  was  not  Judaism  in 
both  these  phases  endangered  by  the  new  and  ag¬ 
gressive  enemy  from  the  West?  And  did  not  the 
two  have  enough  in  common  to  become  one  in  the 
hour  of  great  need  ?  Hasidism,  in  fact,  was  Judaism 
emotionalized,  and  since,  beginning  with  Rabbi 
Shneor  Zalman  of  Ladi,  it,  too,  advocated  the  study 
of  the  Talmud,  the  distinction  between  it  and  Mit- 
naggedism  was  hardly  perceptible.  The  study  of 
the  Zohar  and  Cabbala  was  equally  cultivated  by 
both;  Isaac  Luria  and  Hayyim  Vital  were  equally 
venerated  by  both,  and  hero  worship  was  common 
to  both.  The  Ascension  of  Elijah  (Gaon)  is  as 
full  of  miracles  as  The  Praises  of  the  Besht.  It  is 
no  wonder,  then,  that  the  animosities,  which  reached 
their  acme  during  the  last  few  years  of  the  Gaon’s 
life,  were  weakened  after  his  death,  and  that  the 
compromise,  pleaded  for  by  Doctor  Hurwitz  and 
Manasseh  Ilye,  was  somehow  effected.  But  it  was 
otherwise  with  the  Haskalah.  “  Verily,”  says  the 

134 


THE  DAWN  OF  HASKALAH 


zaddik  Menahem  Mendel  of  Vitebsk,  “  verily, 
grammar  is  useful;  that  our  great  ones  indulged 
in  the  study  thereof  I  also  know ;  but  what  is  to  be 
done  since  the  wicked  and  sinful  have  taken  posses¬ 
sion  of  it?  ”  In  the  same  manner  does  Rabbi  Hay- 
yim  of  Volozhin  inveigh  against  the  followers  of 
Mendelssohn,  because  of  the  latitudinarian  habits  of 
the  Maskilim,  who  “  despise  the  counsel  of  their  bet¬ 
ters,  and  go  after  the  dictates  of  their  hearts.35  Both 
saw  in  Haskalah  a  deadly  foe  to  their  dearest  ideals, 
a  blight  upon  their  most  cherished  hopes,  and,  like 
Elizabeta  Petrovna,  they  would  not  derive  even  a 
benefit  from  the  enemies  of  their  religion. 

Still,  Alexander  I  approached  his  object  only 
tentatively.  Haskalah  during  his  reign  was  like 
the  Leviathan  in  the  Talmud  legend  which  re¬ 
sembled  an  island,  so  that  wayfarers  approached 
it  to  moor  under  its  lee  and  find  shelter  in  its  shade, 
but  as  soon  as  they  began  to  walk  and  cook  on  it,  it 
would  turn  and  submerge  them  in  the  stormy  and 
bottomless  sea.  The  Jews  were  invited  or  induced 
to  forsake  their  religion,  and  only  the  less  discern¬ 
ing  were  caught  in  the  snare.  It  remained  for  the 
“  terrible  incarnation  of  autocracy,”  Nicholas  I 
( 1825-1855) ,  or,  as  his  Jewish  subjects  called  him, 
Haman  II,  to  fill  their  cup  of  woe  to  overflowing 

135 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

and  employ  every  available  means  to  convert  them 
to  his  own  religion. 

Nicholas’s  one  aim  was  “  to  diminish  the  num¬ 
ber  of  Jews  in  the  empire,”  but  not  by  expulsion, 
the  means  employed  by  Ferdinand  and  Isabella. 
Fie  knew  too  well  their  value  as  citizens  to  allow 
them  to  migrate.  He  would  diminish  their  num¬ 
bers  by  forced  baptism.  Baptized  Jews  were  ex¬ 
empted  from  the  payment  of  taxes  for  three  years; 
Jewish  criminals  could  have  their  punishment  com¬ 
muted  or  could  obtain  a  pardon  by  ceasing  to  be 
Jews.  But  as  these  inducements  could  naturally 
appeal  only  to  comparatively  few,  more  stringent 
measures  were  resorted  to.  Hitherto  the  Jews 
had  been  excused  from  military  service,  paying  an 
annual  sum  of  money  for  the  privilege.  On  Sep¬ 
tember  7,  1827,  an  ukase  was  issued  requiring  them 
not  only  to  pay  the  same  amount  as  theretofore,  but 
also  to  serve  in  the  army;  and  while  Christians  had 
to  furnish  only  seven  recruits  per  thousand,  and 
only  at  certain  intervals,  the  Jews  had  to  contribute 
ten  recruits  for  each  thousand,  and  that  at  every 
conscription.  The  only  exception  was  made  in  the 
case  of  the  Karaites,  who,  according  to  Nicholas’s 
decision,  had  emigrated  from  Palestine  before  the 


136 


THE  DAWN  OF  HASKALAH 


Christian  era,  and  could  not  therefore  have  par¬ 
ticipated  in  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus.  Jews  found  out¬ 
side  of  their  native  towns  without  passports,  and 
those  in  arrears  with  their  taxes,  frequently  even 
those  who,  having  lagged  behind  in  their  payment 
to  the  Government,  eventually  discharged  their 
obligations,  were  to  be  seized  and  sentenced  to 
serve  in  the  army,  and  this  meant  a  lifetime,  or  at 
least  twenty-five  years,  of  the  most  abject  slavery 
imaginable.  This  grievous  measure  caused  the 
utmost  misery.  No  Jewish  youth  leaving  home 
could  be  sure  of  returning  and  seeing  his  dear 
ones  again.  The  scum  of  the  Jewish  population 
(poimshchiki,  or  “  catchers  ”)  made  it  their  pro¬ 
fession  to  ensnare  helpless  young  men  or  poor  itin¬ 
erant  students  suspected  of  the  Haskalah  heresy, 
destroy  their  passports,  and  deliver  them  up  as 
poimaniki  (recruits),  to  spare  the  rich  who  paid 
for  the  substitutes.  To  form  an  idea  of  the  time 
we  need  but  read  some  of  the  numerous  folk-songs 
of  that  day.  Here  is  one  of  many: 

Quietly  I  walk  in  the  street, 

When  behind  me  I  hear  the  rush  of  feet. 

Woes  have  come  and  sought  me, 

Alas,  had  I  bethought  me. 

137 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


“Your  passport,”  they  ask.  Alas,  It  is  lost ! 

“  Then  serve  the  White  Czar !  ”  that  is  the  cost. 

Woe  has  come  and  sought  me, 

Alas,  had  I  bethought  me. 

There  are  many  rooms,  they  take  me  to  one, 

And  strip  from  my  body  the  poor  homespun. 

Woe  has  come  and  sought  me, 

Alas,  had  I  bethought  me. 

They  take  me  to  another  room, 

The  uniform1 — that  is  my  doom. 

Woe  has  come  and  sought  me, 

Alas,  had  I  bethought  me. 

Rather  than  wear  the  cap  of  the  czar, 

To  study  the  Torah  were  better  by  far. 

Woe  has  come  and  sought  me, 

Alas,  had  I  bethought  me. 

Rather  than  eat  of  the  czar’s  black  bread, 

I’d  study  the  Scriptures  head  by  head. 

Woes  have  come  and  sought  me, 

Alas,  had  I  bethought  me. 

Yet  this  was  not  all.  Knowing  that  it  is  easier 
to  convert  the  children  than  their  elders,  the  Gov¬ 
ernment  of  Nicholas  I,  out-Heroding  Herod,  in¬ 
augurated  a  system  so  cruel  as  to  fill  with  terror 
and  pity  the  heart  of  the  most  ferocious  barbarian. 
Infants  were  torn  from  their  mothers,  boys  of  the 
age  of  twelve,  sometimes  of  ten  and  eight,  were 

138 


THE  DAWN  OF  HASKALAH 


herded  like  cattle,  sent  to  distant  parts  of  Russia, 
and  there  distributed  as  chattels  among  the  officers 
of  the  army.  Many  of  these  Cantonists,  as  they 
were  called,  either  died  on  the  way,  or  were  killed 
off  when  they  resisted  conversion.  Those  who  sur¬ 
vived  sometimes  returned  to  Judaism,  and  formed 
the  nucleus  of  Jewish  settlements  in  the  interior  of 
Russia.  These  “  soldiers  of  Nicholas  ”  (Niko- 
layevskiye  soldati),  with  their  uncouth  demeanor 
and  devoted,  though  ignorant,  adherence  to  the 
faith  of  their  fathers,  furnished  much  material  for 
the  folk-songs  of  the  time  and  the  novelists  of  the 
somewhat  happier  reigns  of  Nicholas’s  successors.38 

One  of  these  Cantonists,  the  first  to  give  a  de¬ 
scription  of  the  life  of  his  fellow-sufferers,  was 
Wolf  Nachlass,  or  Alexander  Alekseyev.  For 
many  years  he  remained  faithful  to  the  religion  of 
his  forefathers,  though  he  had  been  pressed  into 
the  service  at  the  age  of  ten.  About  1845  he 
changed  his  views,  became  an  ardent  Greek  Catho¬ 
lic,  and  converted  five  hundred  Cantonists,  to  the 
great  delight  of  Nicholas  I,  who  thanked  him  in 
person  for  his  zeal.  He  lost  his  leg,  and  during  the 
long  illness  that  followed  Nachlass  settled  in  Nov¬ 
gorod,  and  wrote  several  works  on  Jewish  customs 
and  on  missionary  topics. 

139 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


Less  horrifying,  but  equally  aiming  at  disinte¬ 
gration,  was  Nicholas’s  scheme  of  colonization. 
What  better  means  was  there  for  “  diminishing  the 
number  of  Jews”  than  to  scatter  them  over  the 
wilderness  of  Russia  and  leave  them  to  shift  for 
themselves?  This,  of  course,  was  necessarily  a 
slow  process  and  one  involving  some  expense,  but 
it  was  fraught  with  great  importance  not  only  for 
the  Russian  Church,  but  for  Russian  trade  and  agri¬ 
culture  as  well. 

“  Back  to  the  soil!  ”  Was  not  this  the  cry  of 
the  romantic  Maskilim  in  Germany,  in  Galicia,  and 
particularly  in  Russia?  And  have  not  country  life 
and  field  labor  been  depicted  by  them  in  the  most 
glowing  colors?  Here  was  an  opportunity  to  save 
the  honor  of  the  Jewish  name  and  also  ameliorate 
the  material  condition  of  the  Russian  Jews.  The  per¬ 
mission  given  to  them  by  Alexander  I  to  establish 
themselves  as  farmers  in  the  frigid  yet  free  Siberian 
steppes  was  greeted  with  enthusiasm  by  all.  Nich¬ 
olas’s  ukase  was  hailed  with  joy.  Elias  Mitauer 
and  Meyer  Mendelssohn,  at  the  head  of  seventy 
families  from  Courland,  were  the  first  to  migrate 
to  the  new  region  (1836),  and  they  were  followed 
by  hundreds  more.  Indeed,  the  exodus  assumed 
such  proportions  that  the  Christians  in  the  parts 

140 


THE  DAWN  OF  HASKALAH 


of  the  country  abandoned  by  the  colonists  com¬ 
plained  of  the  decline  in  business  and  the  depre¬ 
ciation  of  property.  The  movement  was  heartily 
approved  by  the  rabbis ;  the  populace,  its  imagina¬ 
tion  stimulated,  began  to  dream  dreams  and  see 
visions  of  brighter  days,  and  all  gave  vent  to  their 
hopefulness  in  songs  of  gladness  and  gratitude,  in 
strains  like  these : 57 

Who  lives  so  free 

As  the  farmer  on  his  land? 

His  farm  his  companion  is, 

His  never-failing  friend. 

His  sleep  to  him  is  sweet 
After  a  hearty  meal ; 

Neither  grief  nor  worry 
The  farmer-man  doth  feel. 

He  rises  very  early 

To  start  betimes  his  toil, 

Healthy  and  very  happy 
On  his  ever-smiling  soil. 

O  blessings  on  our  czar, 

Czar  Nikolai,  then  be, 

Who  granted  us  this  gladness, 

And  bade  the  Jews  be  free. 

Alas,  this  joy  was  of  short  duration !  Very  soon 
Nicholas  became  suspicious  of  his  Siberian  coloniza- 

141 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

tion  scheme,  that  it  was  in  reality  a  philanthropic 
measure,  and  in  place  of  saving  the  Jew’s  soul  it 
only  promoted  his  physical  well-being.  This  sus¬ 
picion  grew  into  a  conviction  when  he  learned  that 
the  Jewish  community  at  Tomsk,  still  faithful  to 
the  heritage  of  Israel,  applied  for  permission  to 
appoint  a  spiritual  leader.  The  autocrat,  therefore, 
signed  an  ukase  checking  settlement  in  the  hitherto 
free  land,  depriving  honest  men  of  the  privilege 
enjoyed  by  the  worst  of  criminals,  and  enrolling 
the  children  of  those  already  there  among  the  mili¬ 
tary  Cantonists  (January  5,  1837). 

Then  began  real  misery.  Believing  at  first  that 
the  czar’s  intentions  were  sincere,  many  Jews  had 
sold  their  hut  and  land  and  left  for  Siberia.  No 
sooner  were  they  there  than  they  were  sent,  on 
foot,  to  Kherson.  The  decree  of  the  “  little  father  ” 
was  executed  in — no  other  phrase  can  describe  it 
so  well — Russian  fashion.  The  innocent  Jews  who 
had  come  to  Siberia  by  invitation  were  seized, 
treated  as  vagabonds,  and  deported  to  their  destina¬ 
tion.  Want  and  suffering  produced  contagious 
diseases,  and  many  became  a  burden  to  the  Jews 
of  Kremenchug  and  such  Christians  as  could 
not  witness  unmoved  the  infernal  comedy  played 
by  the  defender  of  the  Greek  Catholic  Church. 


THE  DAWN  OF  HASKALAH 

Help  could  be  rendered  only  secretly,  and  those 
who  dared  complain  were  severely  punished. 

At  the  same  time  that  this  was  taking  place  in 
the  wilderness  of  Siberia,  a  phenomenon  of  rare 
occurrence  was  to  be  witnessed  in  the  very  heart 
of  the  Jewish  Pale,  in  Lithuania.  Aroused  by  the 
wretched  condition  of  his  coreligionists,  Solomon 
Posner  (1780-1848)  determined  to  erect  cloth 
factories  exclusively  for  Jews.  He  sent  to  Ger¬ 
many  for  experts  to  teach  them  the  trade.  These 
Jewish  workingmen  proved  so  industrious  and 
intelligent  that  before  the  end  of  three  years  they 
surpassed  their  teachers  in  mechanical  skill.  But 
this  attempt  of  Posner  was  only  prefatory  to  the 
greater  and  more  arduous  task  he  set  himself.  It 
was  nothing  less  than  the  establishment  of  a  colony 
in  which  some  of  the  most  Utopian  theories  would 
be  applied  to  actual  life.  Ten  years  after  Robert 
Owen  founded  his  communistic  settlement  at  New 
Harmony,  Indiana,  several  hundred  robust  Russian 
Jews  settled  on  some  of  the  thousands  of  acres  in 
Lithuania  that  were  lying  fallow  for  want  of  tillers. 
With  these  farmers  Posner  hoped  to  realize  his 
Utopia.  He  provided  every  family  with  sufficient 
land,  the  necessary  agricultural  implements,  as  well 
as  with  horses,  cows,  etc.,  free  of  charge,  for  a 

148 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


term  of  twenty-five  years.  In  return,  the  members 
of  the  community  pledged  themselves  to  use  simple 
homespun  for  their  apparel,  black  on  holidays,  gray 
on  week-days,  not  to  indulge  in  the  luxuries  of  city 
life,  and  to  avoid  trading  of  any  sort.  As  time 
passed,  Posner  opened  coeducational  technical 
schools  for  the  children  and  batte  midrashim  for 
adults,  and  soon  the  homesteads  presented  the 
appearance  of  progressive  and  flourishing  farms. 
Posner’s  successful  effort  attracted  the  admiration 
of  Prince  Pashkevich,  and  was  both  a  living  protest 
against  the  accusation  of  Nicholas  that  Jews  were 
unfit  to  be  farmers  and  an  eloquent  plea  for  the 
unfortunate  victims  of  a  capricious  tyrant  in  Siberia 
and  Kherson.38 

In  his  efforts  to  curb  the  stiff-necked  Jews  by 
all  manner  of  fiendish  persecution,  Nicholas  did 
not  neglect  to  try  the  efficacy  of  some  of  the  plans 
advocated  by  Lewis  Way.  Undismayed  by  the 
failure  of  the  Committee  of  Guardians  for  Israelit- 
ish  Christians,  in  which  Alexander  I  had  put  so 
much  confidence,  a  u  Jewish  Committee,”  all  the 
members  of  which  were  Christians,  was  organized 
by  imperial  decree  (May  22,  1825).  This  com¬ 
mittee  established,  in  1829,  a  school  at  Warsaw 
where  Christian  divinity  students  were  to  be  in- 

144 


THE  DAWN  OF  HASKALAH 

structed  in  rabbinical  literature  and  in  Judeo-Ger- 
man,  in  order  to  be  fully  equipped  for  missionary 
work  among  the  Jews.  It  appointed  Abbe  Luigi 
Chiarini  to  translate,  or  rather  expose,  the  Baby¬ 
lonian  Talmud,  to  which  undertaking  the  Govern¬ 
ment  contributed  twelve  thousand  thalers. 

To  do  his  work  thoroughly,  the  abbe  deemed  it 
advisable  to  write  a  preliminary  dissertation,  pre¬ 
senting  his  aim  and  views.  This  he  did  in  his 
Theory  of  Judaism  ( Theorie  du  judaisme,  Paris, 
1830).  He  endeavored  to  show  how  worthless, 
injurious,  and  immoral  were  the  teachings  of  the 
Talmud.  Only  by  discarding  them  would  the  Jews 
qualify  themselves  to  enjoy  the  right  of  citizenship. 
He  proved,  to  his  own  satisfaction,  that  ritual  mur¬ 
der  was  enjoined  in  the  Talmud,  and  this  he  did  at 
a  time  when  many  a  community  was  harassed  by 
this  fiendish  accusation.  When  early  death  cut 
short  the  abbe’s  effort  (1832),  the  Government, 
still  persisting  in  its  plans,  engaged  the  services  of 
Ephraim  Moses  Pinner  of  Posen,  who  published 
specimens  of  his  intended  translation  in  his  Com¬ 
pendium  (Berlin,  1831).  But  the  fickle  or  rest¬ 
less  emperor  seems  to  have  tired  of  the  plan,  or 
perhaps  he  found  Pinner  too  Jewish  for  his  pur¬ 
poses.  Of  the  twenty-eight  volumes  planned,  only 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

one,  which  was  dedicated  to  Nicholas,  appeared 
during  the  decade  following  Chiarini’s  death,  and 
the  work  was  abandoned  entirely.30 

The  crusade  against  the  Talmud,  thus  headed 
and  backed  by  the  Government,  now  broke  out  in 
all  its  fury.  Anti-Talmudic  works  in  English, 
French,  and  German  were  imported  into  Russia, 
translated  into  Hebrew,  and  scattered  among  the 
people.  The  Old  Paths,  by  Alexander  McCaul,  a 
countryman  and  colleague  of  Lewis  Way,  but  sur¬ 
passing  him  in  zeal  for  the  conversion  of  Jews, 
was  translated  into  Hebrew  and  German  (Frank- 
fort-on-the-Main,  1839)  for  the  edification  of  those 
who  knew  no  English.  JewTs  themselves,  either  out 
of  revenge  or  because  they  sought  to  ingratiate 
themselves  with  the  high  authorities,  joined  the 
movement,  and  openly  came  out  against  the  Tal¬ 
mud  in  works  modelled  after  Eisenmenger’s  Ent - 
decktes  Judenthum .  Such  were  Buchner,  author  of 
TForthlessness  of  the  Talmud  ( Der  Talmud  in 
seiner  Nichtigkeit,  2  vols.,  Warsaw,  1848),  and 
Temkin,  who  wrote  The  Straight  Road  ( Derek 
Selulah,  St.  Petersburg,  1835).  The  former  was 
instructor  in  Hebrew  and  Holy  Writ  in  the  rab¬ 
binical  seminary  in  Warsaw;  the  latter  was  a  zeal¬ 
ous  convert  to  the  Greek  Catholic  faith,  who  spared 

146 


THE  DAWN  OF  HASKALAH 

no  effort  to  make  Judaism  disliked  among  his  for¬ 
mer  coreligionists. 

All  these  desperate  attempts  proved  of  no  avail. 
Judaism  was  practiced,  and  the  Talmud  was  studied 
during  the  reign  of  Nicholas  I  more  ardently  than 
ever  before.  Their  sacred  treasures  attacked  by 
the  Government  without  and  by  renegades  and 
detractors  within,  the  Russian  Jews  nevertheless 
clung  to  them  with  a  tenacity  unparalleled  even  in 
their  own  history.  Danzig’s  Life  of  Man  ( Hayye 
Adam,  Vilna,  1810),  containing  all  Jewish  ritual 
ceremonies,  was  followed  out  to  the  least  minutiae. 
Despite  the  poverty  of  the  Jews  and  the  compara¬ 
tively  exorbitant  price  the  publisher  had  to  charge 
for  the  Talmud,  and,  aside  from  the  many  sets  of 
former  editions  in  the  country  and  those  continually 
imported,  and  in  addition  to  the  Responsa,  com¬ 
mentaries,  Midrashim,  and  other  works  directly 
and  indirectly  bearing  on  it,  more  than  a  dozen 
editions  of  the  Talmud  had  appeared  in  Russia 
alone  since  the  ukase  of  Catherine  II  (October  30, 
1 79 5 )  permitting  Russian  Jews  to  publish  Hebrew 
works  in  their  own  country.  This  ukase  had  been 
intended  originally  to  exclude  seditious  literature 
from  Russia,  but  what  was  unfavorable  for  the 
rebellious  Poles  proved,  in  a  measure,  very  bene- 

147 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

ficial  to  the  law-abiding  Jews.  Under  the  super¬ 
vision  of  a  censor,  and  with  but  slight  interruptions, 
the  Jews  published  their  own  books,  and  in  1806 
Slavuta,  in  Volhynia,  saw  the  first  complete  edition 
of  the  Talmud  on  Russian  soil.  Then  followed 
another  edition  in  the  same  place  (1808-1813),  a 
third  in  Kopys  (1816-1828),  and  a  fourth  in  Sla¬ 
vuta  (1817-1822),  and  several  others  elsewhere. 

The  story  of  the  Vilna-Grodno  edition  of  the 
Talmud  is  interesting  as  well  as  illuminating.  It 
depicts  the  relation  of  the  Jews  among  themselves 
and  to  the  Government.  Begun  in  1835,  at  Ozar, 
near  Grodno,  an  imperial  ukase  directed  the  re¬ 
moval  of  the  work  to  Vilna,  the  metropolis  of 
Russo-Poland.  When  the  publishers,  Simhah  Ziml 
and  Menahem  Mann  Romm,  had  completed  their 
work  in  the  new  quarters,  the  copies  of  the  book 
were  destroyed  by  incendiaries  (1840).  After 
some  time,  an  effort  was  made  by  Joseph  Eliasberg 
and  Mattathias  Strashun  to  continue  the  publica¬ 
tion,  but  the  Warsaw  censor  prohibited  its  impor¬ 
tation  into  Poland,  where  the  bulk  of  the  subscri¬ 
bers  lived.  To  add  to  the  calamity,  a  feud  broke 
out  between  the  head  of  the  Slavuta  publishing  com¬ 
pany,  Moses  Schapira  ( 1758-1838) ,  and  the  Vilna 
publishers.  The  publication  of  the  Talmud  had 

148 


THE  DAWN  OF  HASKALAH 


always  been  supervised  by  the  prominent  rabbis  of 
the  land,  and  their  authorization  was  necessary  to 
make  an  edition  legal.  This  the  rabbi  never  granted 
unless  the  previous  edition  was  entirely  disposed 
of.  The  Slavuta  publishers  claimed  that  their  edi¬ 
tion  had  not  been  sold  out  when  the  Vilna  pub¬ 
lishers  started  theirs.  The  litigation  continued  for 
some  time,  and  was  finally  decided  in  favor  of  the 
Vilna  firm.  The  publishers  of  Slavuta,  however, 
having  the  Polish  rabbis  and  zaddikim  on  their 
side,  continued  to  publish  the  Talmud,  regardless 
of  the  protests  of  Rabbi  Akiba  Eger  and  the  “  great 
ones  ”  of  Lithuania.  But  a  terrible  misfortune 
befell  the  Slavuta  publishers:  On  account  of  some 
accusation,  the  two  brothers  engaged  in  the  busi¬ 
ness  were  deported  to  Siberia,  and  their  father,  the 
head  of  the  establishment,  died  of  a  broken  heart. 
This  cleared  the  field  for  the  Romms  of  Vilna,  who 
continue  to  prosper  to  this  day,  and  have  now  the 
greatest  Hebrew  publishing  house  in  the  world. 
“  It  is  the  finger  of  God,”  the  pious  ones  said,  and 
studied  the  Talmud  with  increased  devotion.40 

The  numerous  Talmud  editions  indicate  the 
demand  for  the  work,  and  the  multiplicity  of  yeshi- 
bot  explains  the  cause  of  the  demand.  We  have 
seen  how  the  yeshibot  destroyed  by  Chmielnicki 

149 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

were  re-established  soon  after  the  massacres  ceased. 
Their  number  increased  when  the  Hasidic  move¬ 
ment  threatened  to  render  the  knowledge  of  the 
Talmud  unpopular;  and  when  the  Maskilim,  too, 
made  them  a  target  for  their  attacks,  there  was 
hardly  a  town  in  which  such  institutions  were  not 
to  be  found.  But  surpassing  all  the  yeshibot  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  if  not  of  all  centuries,  was  the 
Yeshibah  Tree  of  Life  (Yeshibat  'Ez  Hayyim)  in 
the  townlet  of  Volozhin.  There  the  cherished 
hopes  of  the  Gaon  were  finally  realized.  Within 
its  walls  gathered  the  elect  of  the  Russo-Jewish 
youth  for  almost  a  century. 

The  founder  of  this  famous  yeshibah  was  Rabbi 
Hayyim  Volozhin,  the  greatest  of  the  Gaon’s  dis¬ 
ciples  (1749-1821).  A  prominent  Talmudist  at 
twenty-five,  he,  nevertheless,  left  his  business  and 
household  at  that  age,  and  went  to  Vilna  to  become 
the  humble  pupil  of  the  Gaon,  whose  method  he 
had  followed  from  the  beginning.  When  he  felt 
himself  proficient  enough  in  his  studies,  he  returned 
to  his  native  place,  and  founded  (1803)  the  Tree 
of  Life  College,  with  an  enrollment  of  ten  students, 
whom  he  maintained  at  his  own  expense.  But 
soon  the  fame  of  the  yeshibah  and  its  founder 
spread  far  and  wide,  and  students  flocked  to  it  from 

150 


THE  DAWN  OF  HASKALAH 


all  corners  of  Russia  and  outside  of  it.  In  response 
to  Rabbi  Hayyim’s  appeal  contributions  came  pour¬ 
ing  in,  a  new  and  spacious  school-house  was  erected, 
and  Volozhin  became  a  Talmudic  Oxford.  To  be 
a  student  there  was  both  an  indication  of  superiority 
and  a  means  to  proficiency.  Rabbi  Hayyim  did 
away  with  the  “  Tag-essen,”  or  “  Freitisch  ”  cus¬ 
tom,  and  introduced  a  stipendiary  system  in  its 
stead,  thus  fostering  the  self-respect  of  the  students. 
But  they  did  not  as  a  rule  require  much  to  satisfy 
them  with  their  lot.  They  came  to  Volozhin  “  to 
learn,”  and  they  well  knew  the  Talmudic  state¬ 
ment,  that  “  no  one  can  attain  eminence  in  the 
Torah  unless  he  is  willing  to  die  for  its  sake.” 

Rabbi  Hayyim  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Rabbi 
Isaac,  who  united  knowledge  of  secular  subjects 
with  profound  Talmudic  erudition,  was  active  in 
worldly  affairs,  and  played  a  prominent  part  in  the 
Jewish  history  of  his  day.  He  was  of  the  leading 
spirits  who,  in  1842,  attended  the  rabbinical  con¬ 
ference  at  St.  Petersburg  convoked  by  Nicholas  I. 
The  number  of  students  increased  under  his  leader¬ 
ship,  according  to  Lilienthal,  to  three  hundred.  But 
Rabbi  Isaac  became  so  engrossed  in  public  affairs 
that  he  found  he  could  no  longer  do  justice  to  his 
position.  His  two  sons-in-law,  therefore,  took  his 

151 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


place,  and  when  the  older  died,  in  1854,  Rabbi 
Naphtali  Zebi  Judah  Berlin  (1817-1893)  entered 
on  his  useful  career,  unbroken  for  forty  years,  as 
the  dean  of  the  greatest  seat  of  learning  in  the 
Diaspora.  Under  his  administration  the  Tree  of 
Life  College  reached  both  the  height  of  its  pros¬ 
perity  and  the  end  of  its  existence  (1892). 41 

Thus  all  the  schemes  and  machinations  of  the 
Russian  Government  respecting  the  Jews  proved 
ineffectual.  Nicholas  I,  with  the  possible  exception 
of  Ivan  the  Terrible,  the  greatest  autocrat  in  Rus¬ 
sian  history,  at  whose  wish  seemingly  insuperable 
obstacles  were  instantly  removed,  the  wink  of  whose 
eye  was  sufficient  to  kill  or  revive  the  millions  of 
his  crouching  slaves — Nicholas  I,  with  all  his  her¬ 
culean  strength,  yet  found  himself  helpless  in  the 
presence  of  a  handful  of  wretched  Jews.  Furious  at 
his  defeat,  he  expressed  the  intention  to  reduce  all 
Jews  to  Governmental  servitude  or  to  make  them, 
like  the  Cossacks,  lifelong  soldiers.  Being  advised 
to  postpone  the  execution  of  this  plan  and  to  em¬ 
ploy  less  severe  measures  meanwhile,  he  issued  the 
Exportation  Law  of  1843,  ordering  the  expulsion 
of  Jews  from  the  fifty-vyerst  boundary  zone  and 
from  the  villages  within  the  Pale,  thereby  depriv- 


152 


THE  DAWN  OF  HASKALAH 

1 

ing  fifty  thousand  families  at  once  of  their  homes 
and  their  support. 

Those  from  the  country — writes  a  Russo-Jewish  eye-witness  of 
the  scenes  following  the  enforcement  of  this  inhuman  law — move 
first  to  the  neighboring  cities,  and  increase  the  existing  poverty, 
rendering  the  difficulty  of  finding  profitable  employment  still 
greater.  God  only  knows  how  it  will  end  when  the  congestion 
increases  still  further.  ...  I  must  also  inform  you — he  proceeds — 
that  these  past  four  months  several  imperial  commissioners  have 
visited  the  frontier  towns  on  the  Lithuanian  border,  from  which 
the  Jews  are  to  be  banished,  in  order  that  the  value  of  the  real 
estate  may  be  estimated.  But  how  is  the  valuation  calculated? 
Even  one  who  is  acquainted  with  the  venality  and  unscrupulous¬ 
ness  of  Russian  officers  cannot  form  a  correct  idea  of  how  this 
business  is  conducted.  If  a  man  has  no  connection  with  those  in 
authority,  or  cannot  obtain  powerful  intercession,  or  is  unable  to 
give  heavy  bribes,  his  property  is  valued  at  perhaps  five  per  cent, 
or  is  set  at  so  low  a  figure  as  to  make  the  appraisal  differ  little 
from  downright  robbery.  We,  however,  are  used  to  such  meas¬ 
ures,  for  when  they  banished  us  some  time  past  from  certain 
districts  of  the  city  of  Brest-Litovsk,  where  for  centuries  cele¬ 
brated  scholars  of  our  people  dwelt,  nothing  better  was  done  by 
the  crown  to  compensate  us  for  our  houses.42  The  same  occurred 
at  the  expulsion  from  St.  Petersburg,  Moscow,  Kiev,  Nikolayev, 
Alexandrov,  Sebastopol,  etc.,  but  as  it  did  not  affect  so  large  a 
mass,  nor  injure  us  to  so  great  an  extent,  we  bore  the  injury 
silently.  Alas,  this  is  not  the  case  at  present.  We  should  gladly 
quit  the  country,  gladly  should  we  emigrate  to  America,  Texas, 
and  especially  to  Palestine  under  English  protection,  if,  on  the  one 

153 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


hand,  we  had  the  means  and,  on  the  other,  the  Government  would 
permit  us. 

This  Exportation  Law  of  Nicholas  I,  the  result 
of  a  lawsuit  between  a  Jew  and  a  nobleman  living 
on  the  eastern  frontier,  which  had  been  decided  by 
the  supreme  court  in  favor  of  the  former,  aroused 
much  excitement  in  every  civilized  country  of 
Europe.  It  was  before  anti-Semitism  was  in  flower, 
and  the  people  of  the  time  were  more  responsive 
even  than  during  the  later  Kishinev  massacres.  In¬ 
dignation  meetings  were  held.  Both  Jews  and  Gen¬ 
tiles,  not  only  abroad,  but  even  in  Russia,  protested. 
Prayers  were  offered  for  the  unfortunate.  Cremieux 
in  France  and  Rabbi  Philippson  in  Germany  ap¬ 
pealed  to  the  public.  All  to  no  effect.  Grief  was 
especially  manifest  among  English  Jews,  always 
the  first  to  feel  when  their  fellow-Jews  in  other 
countries  suffer,  and  Grace  Aguilar,  like  Rachel 
weeping  over  her  children,  lamented  over  her  Rus¬ 
sian  brethren : 

Ay,  death!  for  such  is  exile — fearful  doom, 

From  homes  expelled  yet  still  to  Poland  chain’d; 

Till  want  and  famine  mind  and  life  consume, 

And  sorrow’s  poison’d  chalice  all  is  drained. 

O  God,  that  this  should  be !  that  one  frail  man 
Hath  power  to  crush  a  nation  ’neath  his  ban. 

154 


THE  DAWN  OF  HASKALAH 


At  this  critical  period,  Moses  Montefiore,  en¬ 
couraged  by  his  success  in  refuting  the  blood  accu¬ 
sation  at  Damascus,  and  stimulated  by  the  many 
petitions  he  had  received  from  Russia,  Germany, 
France,  Italy,  England,  and  America,  undertook 
the  philanthropic  mission  of  interceding  with  the 
czar  on  behalf  of  his  coreligionists.  It  is  natural 
to  suspect  that  no  trouble  is  entirely  undeserved; 
it  is  but  human  to  sympathize  with  our  friends,  and 
yet  regard  their  suffering  as  a  judgment  rather 
than  a  misfortune.  But  Montefiore’s  trip  to  Russia 
dispelled  the  last  trace  of  suspicion  against  the  Rus¬ 
sian  Jews.  In  spite  of  their  poverty,  he  saw  numer¬ 
ous  charitable  and  educational  institutions  in  every 
city  he  visited.  He  found  the  Jewish  men  to  be  the 
cream  of  Russia.  “  He  had  the  satisfaction,”  Doc¬ 
tor  Loewe,  his  secretary,  tells  us,  “  of  seeing  among 
them  many  well-educated  wives,  sons,  and  daugh¬ 
ters;  their  dwellings  were  scrupulously  clean,  the 
furniture  plain  but  suitable  for  the  purpose,  and  the 
appearance  of  the  family  healthy.”  To  all  his 
pleadings  Count  Uvarov  returned  but  a  single  an¬ 
swer  :  “  The  Russian  Jews  are  different  from  other 
Jews;  they  are  orthodox,  and  believe  in  the  Tal¬ 
mud  ”  44 — a  reason  for  persecution  in  Holy  Russia  I 
Montefiore’s  visit  to  Russia,  from  which  so 

155 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

much  had  been  hoped,  did  not  improve  the  situation 
in  the  least.  For  all  his  strenuous  efforts,  he  was 
compelled  to  leave  the  Jews  as  destitute  as  he  had 
found  them.  Nay,  they  might  truthfully  have  said 
to  the  Moses  of  England  what  their  ancestors  had 
said  to  the  Moses  of  Egypt,  “  Since  thou  didst  come 
to  Pharaoh,  the  hardness  of  our  lot  has  increased.” 
From  the  first  of  May  (1844)  they  were  not  al¬ 
lowed  to  continue  to  earn  the  pittance  necessary  to 
maintain  life,  as,  for  instance,  by  the  slavish  labor 
of  breaking  stones  on  the  highways,  with  which 
three  hundred  families  had  barely  earned  dry 
bread.45  The  great  love  and  respect  shown  to  the 
uncrowned  king  of  Israel  proved  to  the  czar’s  offi¬ 
cials  the  existence  of  some  artful  design  on  the  part 
of  the  Jews,  and  convinced  them  especially  of  the 
disloyalty  of  Montefiore.  The  latter,  they  main¬ 
tained,  was  scheming  to  set  himself  up  as  the  Jew¬ 
ish  czar.  Hence  every  movement  of  his  was  closely 
watched,  every  word  he  uttered  carefully  noted, 
and  not  a  few  Jews  were  left  with  memorable 
tokens  for  doing  homage  to  the  English  baronet. 
Their  disabilities  were  not  removed,  their  condi¬ 
tion  was  not  improved,  the  hopes  they  entertained 
resolved  themselves  into  pleasant  dreams  followed 
by  a  sad  awakening.43 


156 


THE  DAWN  OF  HASKALAH 


Yet,  though  his  visit  did  not,  as  Sir  Moses  had 
anticipated,  “  raise  the  Jews  in  the  estimation  of  the 
people,”  it  was  not  without  beneficent  effect  on  the 
Jews  themselves.  It  cemented  the  “  traditional 
friendship  ”  which  has  always  existed  between 
Anglo-Jews  and  Russo- Jews  more  than  between 
any  sets  of  Jews  of  the  dispersion.  It  disclosed  to 
the  latter  that  there  were  happier  Jews  and  better 
countries  than  their  own ;  that  there  were  men  who 
sympathized  with  them  as  effectively  as  could  be. 
Above  all,  it  convinced  them  that  a  Jew  may  be 
highly  educated  and  wealthy,  and  take  his  place 
among  the  noble  ones  of  the  earth,  and  still  remain 
a  faithful  Jew  and  a  loyal  son  of  his  persecuted 
people.  “  I  leave  you,”  Sir  Moses  called  to  them 
at  parting,  “  but  my  heart  will  ever  remain  with 
you.  When  my  brethren  suffer,  I  feel  it  painfully; 
when  they  have  reason  to  weep,  my  eyes  shed 
tears.”  Had  Montefiore’s  visit  resulted  merely  in 
arousing  his  brethren’s  self-consciousness,  he  had 
earned  a  place  in  the  history  of  Haskalah,  for  self- 
consciousness  is  the  most  potent  factor  in  the  cul¬ 
ture  of  mankind. 

Jews  from  other  lands  also  came  to  the  rescue 
of  their  Russian  coreligionists.  Jacques  Isaac  Al- 
taras,  the  ship-builder  of  Marseilles,  petitioned  the 

157 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

czar  to  allow  forty  thousand  Jewish  families  to 
emigrate  to  Algeria.  Rabbi  Ludwig  Philippson, 
editor  of  the  Allgemeine  Zeitung  des  Judenthums, 
appealed  to  his  countrymen  to  help  the  Russian 
Jews  to  settle  in  America,  Australia,  Africa,  any¬ 
where  away  from  Russia.  But  all  attempts  were  in¬ 
effectual.  Though  Count  Kissilyef  assured  Monte- 
fiore  that  the  czar  u  did  not  wish  to  keep  them  [the 
Jews],  five  or  six  hundred  thousand  might  leave 
altogether,”  emigration  was  next  to  impossible. 
Russia  was  constantly  playing  the  game  of  the  cat 
with  the  mouse.  Her  nails  were  set  and  her  eyes 
fixed  upon  her  prey,  and  yet  she  made  it  appear  to 
the  outside  world  that  she  was  anxious  about  the 
welfare  of  the  Jews.  For  Russian  tactics  have 
always  been,  and  still  are,  the  despair  of  the  diplo¬ 
mat,  a  labyrinth  through  which  only  they  who  hold 
the  clue  can  ever  hope  to  find  their  way. 

The  condition  of  the  Jews  in  Russo-Poland  was, 
if  possible,  even  worse  than  in  Lithuania  and  Rus¬ 
sia  proper.  Nothing,  in  fact,  but  the  auto-da-fe 
was  needed  to  give  it  the  stamp  of  medieval  Spain. 
As  before  the  division  of  Poland,  the  Poles  sus¬ 
pected  the  Jews  of  disloyalty  to  Poland,  while  the 
Russians  suspected  them  of  disloyalty  to  Russia. 
Hitherto  too  proud  to  soil  his  hand  with  a  manual 

158 


THE  DAWN  OF  HASKALAH 


or  mercantile  pursuit,  the  Polish  pan,  now  that  the 
glory  of  his  country  had  departed,  and  he  was  de¬ 
prived  of  his  lordly  estates,  began  to  engage  in 
business  of  all  kinds,  and,  finding  in  the  Jewish 
trader  a  rival  with  whose  skill  and  diligence  he 
could  seldom  compete,  he  became  embittered  against 
the  entire  race.  This  was  the  cause  of  the  innumer¬ 
able  restrictions,  the'extortion,  and  exploitation  in 
Russo-Poland,  which  surpassed  those  of  Russia 
proper. 

The  Jewish  archives — said  Doctor  Marcus  Jastrow,  then  Rabbi 
in  Warsaw — were  humorously  known  as  “California”  or  the 
“Mexican  Gold  Mines.”  Jews  had  to  pay  at  every  step.  They 
had  to  pay  a  Tagzettel  [daily  tax]  for  permission  to  stay  in  War¬ 
saw,  which  permission,  however,  did  not  include  the  luxury  of 
breathing.  The  latter  had  to  be  purchased  with  an  additional  ten 
kopecks  per  capita.  The  income  from  these  taxations  amounted 
to  over  a  million  and  a  half,  but  in  spite  of  all  this  the  Jews 
were  regarded  as  parasites,  as  leeches  feasting  upon  the  life¬ 
blood  of  their  Christian  compatriots.47 

Such  is  the  background  upon  which  the  picture 
of  Haskalah  is  to  be  drawn — black  enough  to  throw 
into  relief  the  faintest  ray  of  light.  The  Russian 
Jews,  during  the  reign  of  Nicholas  I,  found  them¬ 
selves  in  a  position  possible  only  in  Russia.  They 
were  not  allowed  to  emigrate,  nor  suffered  to  stay. 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

In  1823  they  were  expelled  from  the  farms,  and 
had  to  crowd  into  the  cities;  in  1838  they  were 
expelled  from  the  cities,  and  forced  to  go  back  to 
the  country.  Then  Siberia  was  opened  to  them, 
but  when  it  was  found  that  even  the  land  of  the 
outcasts  was  hailed  as  a  place  of  refuge  by  the  Jews, 
they  were  told  to  go  to  Kherson.  At  last  arrange¬ 
ments  were  perfected  to  allow  them  to  colonize 
Lithuania — all  at  once  even  this  was  interdicted. 
They  had  been  conquered  with  the  Poles,  yet  were 
left  unprotected  against  the  Poles.  Could  they 
help  suspecting  the  tyrant  of  what  he  really  intended 
to  do — of  seeking  to  diminish  their  numbers  by 
conversion?  Is  it  surprising  that  when  he  deter¬ 
mined  to  open  public  schools  and  establish  rab¬ 
binical  seminaries,  Jews  looked  upon  these,  too,  as 
the  sugared  poison  with  which  he  intended  to  extir¬ 
pate  Judaism?  Or  can  we  blame  them  for  being 
determined  to  the  last  to  baffle  him?  Nicholas 
did  not  understand  the  great  lesson  taught  by  the 
history  of  the  Jews  and  inculcated  in  the  old  song, 

To  destroy  all  these  people 

You  should  let  them  alone. 

All  that  tyranny  could  inflict,  the  Russian  Jews 
endured.  Yet  their  number  was  not  diminished. 


160 


THE  DAWN  OF  HASKALAH 


No  coercion  could  make  them  leave,  in  a  body,  the 
old  paths  they  were  wont  to  tread.  Nicholas’s 
so-called  reforms  only  encouraged  a  reaction,  and 
the  more  he  afflicted  the  Jews,  the  more  they  mul¬ 
tiplied  and  grew.  The  behalot  of  1754,  1764,  and 
1793  were  repeated  in  1833  and  1843  5  the  mission¬ 
ary  propaganda  only  strengthened  the  devotion  of 
the  faithful;  and  the  denial  of  the  means  of  support 
only  increased  the  stolidity  of  the  sufferers.  And 
if,  like  some  stepchildren,  they  were  first  beaten  till 
they  cried,  and  then  beaten  because  they  cried,  like 
some  stepchildren  they  rapidly  forgot  their  lot  in 
the  happiness  of  home  and  the  studies  of  the  bet 
ha-midrash,  and  could  sing 48  without  bitterness 
even  of  the  behalah-days,  when 

Little  boys  and  little  girls 
Together  had  been  mated, 

Tishah  be-Ab,  the  wedding  day, — 

Not  a  soul  invited. 

Only  the  father  and  the  mother, 

And  also  uncle  Elye — 

In  his  lengthy  delye  (caftan), 

With  his  scanty  beard — 

Jump  and  jig  with  each  other 
Like  a  colt  afeared. 

[Notes,  pp.  314-317-] 


li 


161 


CHAPTER  IV 


CONFLICTS  AND  CONQUESTS 

1840-1855 

The  charges  brought  against  the  Jews  of  Russia 
by  henchmen  of  the  czar  were  grave,  indeed,  only 
they  did  not  contain  a  particle  of  truth.  In  Russia 
itself,  not  only  Jews  and  non-Russians  but  even 
many  Christians  testified  to  the  innocence  of  the 
Jews,  and  protested  against  their  oppressors.  Bibi¬ 
kov,  the  Governor-General  of  Podolia  and  Vol- 
hynia;  Diakov,  the  Governor-General  of  Smolensk; 
and  Surovyetsky,  the  noted  statesman,  all  write  in 
terms  of  such  praise  of  their  unfortunate  country¬ 
men  of  the  Jewish  faith  that  their  statements  would 
sound  exaggerated,  were  it  not  that  many  other 
unprejudiced  Russians  confirm  their  views.1  The 
fact  that  Nicholas  thought  the  Jews  reliable  as  sol¬ 
diers  speaks  against  the  imputation  that  they  were 
mercenary  and  unpatriotic.  Neither  was  the  con¬ 
ventional  accusation,  that  they  were  a  people  of 
petty  traders,  applicable  to  the  Jews  in  Russia. 

162 


CONFLICTS  AND  CONQUESTS 

Laborers  of  all  kinds  were  very  common  among 
them.  It  was  they,  in  fact,  who  rendered  all  man¬ 
ner  of  service  to  their  Gentile  neighbors,  from  a 
cobbler’s  and  blacksmith’s  to  producing  the  most 
exquisite  objets  d’ art  and  gold  and  silver  engraving. 
They  were  equally  well  represented  among  the 
clerks  and  bookkeepers,  and  the  bricklayers  and 
stone-cutters.  They  took  up  with  the  most  labo¬ 
rious  employments,  if  only  they  furnished  them  with 
an  honest  even  though  scanty  livelihood.2 

But  most  unfounded  of  all  was  the  allegation 
that  Jews  were  opposed  to  education.  The  Mem - 
oirs  of  Madame  Pauline  Wengeroff  indicate  that 
even  among  the  very  strict  Jews  of  her  time  chil¬ 
dren  were  not  denied  instruction  in  the  German, 
Polish,  and  Russian  literatures.  We  have  seen  how 
they  availed  themselves  of  the  permission,  granted 
to  them  by  Alexander  I,  to  attend  the  schools  and 
universities  of  the  empire.  Nor  did  they  fail  to 
open  schools  of  their  own.  No  sooner  was  the 
Franco-Russian  war  over  than  Joseph  Perl  of  Ga¬ 
licia  founded  a  school  in  Tarnopol  (1813),  then  un¬ 
der  the  Russian  Government,  and  two  years  later 
he  drew  upon  his  own  resources  to  build  a  school- 
house  large  enough  to  accommodate  the  great, 
steadily  growing  number  of  students.  In  1822 

168 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

we  hear  of  a  school  that  had  been  in  existence  for 
some  time  in  Uman  (the  Ukraine).  It  had  been 
established  by  Me'ir  Horn,  Moses  Landau,  and 
Hirsh  Hurwitz,  all  of  whom  were  indefatigable 
laborers  in  the  cause  of  Haskalah  in  the  Ukraine. 
Perl’s  school  was  the  pattern  and  model  for  a 
multitude  of  other  schools,  among  them  the  one 
founded  by  Zittenfeld  (1826)  in  Odessa,  in  the 
faculty  of  which  were  Simhah  Pinsker,  Elijah 
Finkel,  the  grandson  of  Elijah  Gaon,  and  Abra¬ 
ham  Abele,  the  eminent  Talmudist.  In  1836  a 
girls’  department  was  added  to  it,  and  when 
Lilienthal  visited  Odessa  (ab.  1843)  h  had  an 
attendance  of  from  four  to  five  hundred  pupils  of 
both  sexes,  the  annual  expense  being  twenty-eight 
thousand  rubles.  A  similar  school  was  opened  in 
Kishinev  by  Stern,  and  in  the  early  “  forties  ”  there 
was  hardly  a  Jewish  community  of  note  without  one 
or  more  of  such  Jewish  public  institutions.  Several 
well-to-do  Maskilim  not  only  founded  but,  like 
Perl,  also  maintained  such  schools,  and  gave  in¬ 
struction  in  some  or  all  of  the  subjects  taught  in 
them.3 

The  “  forties  ”  began  auspiciously  for  Haskalah 
in  Russia.  On  January  15,  1840,  the  Riga  com¬ 
munity,  amid  pomp  and  rejoicing,  opened  the  first 

164 


CONFLICTS  AND  CONQUESTS 

Jewish  school  affiliated  with  a  university.  The 
teaching  staff  consisted  of  three  Jews  and  one 
Christian,  with  Doctor  Max  Lilienthal  (1815- 
1882),  the  young,  highly  recommended,  and  re¬ 
cently  chosen  local  rabbi,  as  its  principal.  In  the 
same  year,  the  indefatigable  Basilius  Stern  suc¬ 
ceeded  in  forming  a  committee,  of  which  Hayyim 
Efrusi  and  Moses  Lichtenstadt  were  members,  to 
deliberate  on  founding  rabbinical  seminaries  in 
Russia.  In  1841,  forty-five  delegates,  representing 
the  six  chief  committees  of  the  Lovers  of  Enlight¬ 
enment,  assembled  in  Vilna,  and  thence  issued  an 
appeal  in  which  they  adopted  as  their  platform  the 
elevation  of  the  moral  standards  of  adults  by  urg¬ 
ing  them  to  follow  useful  trades  and  discouraging 
the  Jewish  proclivity  to  business  as  much  as  pos¬ 
sible;  a  reform  of  the  prevailing  system  of  the 
education  of  the  young;  the  combating,  if  possible 
the  eradication,  of  Hasidism,  the  fountainhead,  as 
they  thought,  of  ignorance  and  superstition;  the 
establishment  of  rabbinical  seminaries,  after  the 
model  of  those  in  Padua  and  Amsterdam,  to  supply 
congregations  with  educated  rabbis.  It  was  fur¬ 
ther  agreed  that  a  Consistory  be  created,  to  super¬ 
vise  Jewish  affairs  and  establish  schools  and  tech¬ 
nical  institutes  wherever  necessary.  To  these  main 

165 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

points  were  added  several  others  of  minor  impor¬ 
tance.  The  Maskilim  of  Besascz  insisted  that  steps 
be  taken  to  stop  the  prevailing  custom  of  premature 
marriages.  Those  of  Brest  proposed  that  Govern¬ 
ment  aid  be  invoked  to  compel  Jews  to  dress  in  the 
German  style,  to  use  authorized  text-books  in  the 
hadarim,  and  interdict  the  study  of  the  Talmud 
except  by  those  preparing  themselves  for  the 
rabbinate.4 

Even  in  Vilna  and  Minsk,  towns  which  later  put 
themselves  on  record  as  opposed  to  Government 
schools,  the  Jews  yielded  gladly  to  the  innovations 
of  such  Maskilim  as  S.  Perl,  G.  Klaczke,  I.  Bompi, 
and  the  distinguished  philanthropist  David  Luria, 
who  took  the  initiative  in  transforming  the  educa¬ 
tional  system  of  these  cities.  Under  the  superin¬ 
tendence  of  Luria,  the  Minsk  Talmud  Torah  be¬ 
came  a  model  institution;  the  training  conferred 
there  on  the  poor  and  orphaned  surpassed  that 
given  to  the  children  of  the  rich  in  their  private 
schools.  This  aroused  jealousy  in  the  parents  of 
the  latter,  and  at  their  request  Luria  organized  a 
merchants’  school,  for  the  wealthier  class.  He  then 
established  what  he  called  Midrash  Ezrahim,  or 
Citizens’  Institute,  in  which  he  met  with  such  suc¬ 
cess  that  he  attracted  the  attention  of  the  authori- 


166 


CONFLICTS  AND  CONQUESTS 

ties,  and  received  a  special  acknowledgment  from 
the  czar.5 

Russian  Jewry  was  astir  with  new  life.  In  many 
places  secular  education  was  divorced  for  the  first 
time  from  rabbinical  speculation.  Knowledge  be¬ 
came  an  end  in  itself,  and  learning  increased  greatly. 
An  investigation  by  Nicholas  I  convinced  all  who 
were  interested  that  though  the  Talmud  remained 
the  chief  subject  of  study,  the  number  of  educated 
Jews  was  far  greater  than  commonly  supposed. 
The  upliftment  of  the  masses  was  the  beau-ideal 
of  every  Maskil,  and  Hebrew  and  even  the  much- 
despised  Yiddish  were  employed  to  effect  it.  Ig¬ 
norance  was  regarded  as  the  bane  of  life,  and  en¬ 
lightenment  as  the  panacea  for  all  the  ills  to  which 
their  downtrodden  brethren  were  heirs.  As  their 
pious  coreligionists  deemed  it  the  universal  duty 
to  be  well-versed  in  the  Talmud,  so  the  Maskilim 
thought  it  incumbent  upon  everybody  to  be  highly 
cultured.  No  obstacle  was  great  enough  to  dis¬ 
courage  them.  They  were  Villing  martyrs  to  the 
goddess  of  Wisdom,  at  whose  shrine  they  wor¬ 
shipped,  and  whose  cult  they  spread  in  the  most 
adverse  circumstances. 

Had  the  Government  not  interfered  with  the 

» 

efforts  of  the  Maskilim,  or  had  it  chosen  a  commis- 

167 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


sion  from  among  the  Russian  Jews  themselves, 
among  whom,  as  soon  became  evident  to  Nicholas 
himself,  there  were  more  than  enough  to  do  justice 
to  an  educational  inquiry,  the  Haskalah  movement 
would  have  continued  to  spread,  notwithstanding 
the  obstacles  put  in  its  way.  But  Nicholas  was 
determined  to  reduce  the  number  of  Jews  also  by 
“  re-educating  ”  them  in  accordance  with  his  own 
ideas.  Every  attempt  made  by  the  Jews  to  educate 
themselves  was,  therefore,  checked.  Even  the 
noble  efforts  of  Luria  were  stopped,  his  schools 
were  closed,  and  his  only  rewards  were  “  a  gold 
medal  from  the  czar  and  a  short  poem  by  Gott- 
lober.” 

In  Germany,  since  the  time  of  Mendelssohn,  the 
study  of  the  Talmud  had  been  on  the  wane.  The 
great  yeshibot  formerly  existing  in  Metz,  Frank¬ 
fort,  Hamburg,  Prague,  Fiirth,  Halberstadt,  etc., 
disappeared,  and  the  reforms  introduced  in  the 
synagogue  and  the  numerous  converts  to  Christian¬ 
ity  impressed  the  outside  world  with  the  idea  that 
Judaism  among  German  Jews  was  writhing  in  the 
agony  of  death.  If  the  same  disintegrating  ele¬ 
ments  were  introduced  among  the  Russian  Jews, 
the  Government  believed  that  they  would  ultimately 
come  over  to  the  Greek  Catholic  Church  of  their 


168 


CONFLICTS  AND  CONQUESTS 

own  accord.  Hence  it  was  anxious  to  learn  the 
secret  of  this  power  and  beamed  graciously  on  sev¬ 
eral  learned  Jews  of  Germany. 

David  Friedlander  (1750-1834)  was  then  con¬ 
sidered  the  legitimate  successor  of  Mendelssohn, 
whose  friend  he  had  been  for  more  than  twenty 
years.  He  resembled  his  master  in  many  re¬ 
spects,  though  he  lacked  both  his  genius  and  his 
sympathy.  Mendelssohn  translated  the  Pentateuch 
and  the  Psalms  into  German,  Friedlander  translated 
the  Haftarot  (selections  from  the  Prophets)  and 
the  prayer  book.  Mendelssohn  encouraged  the  pub¬ 
lication  of  the  Meassef;  he  did  likewise,  and  con¬ 
tributed  several  articles  to  the  journal.  But,  unlike 
his  master,  or,  as  he  claimed,  like  his  master  in 
secret,  he  held  exceedingly  latitudinarian  views  on 
Judaism.  In  his  later  years  he  advocated  abolish¬ 
ing  the  study  of  Hebrew  in  the  schools  and  discard¬ 
ing  it  from  the  prayer  book.  He  even  rejoiced 
that  by  attending  the  services  in  Protestant  churches 
many  Jewish  families  were  becoming  acquainted 
with  the  religion  he  himself  would  have  accepted 
on  certain  conditions.6 

It  was  to  Friedlander  that  Bishop  Malchevsky, 
actuated,  as  he  maintained,  by  a  desire  to  render 
the  Jews  worthy  of  the  enjoyment  of  civil  rights, 

169 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


applied  for  suggestions,  in  1816,  when  the  mission¬ 
ary  zeal  of  Alexander  I  was  first  aroused.  He 
responded  in  a  pamphlet,  On  the  Improvement  of 
the  Israelites  in  the  Kingdom  of  Poland /  in  which 
he  declared  that  the  quickest  way  of  “  civilizing” 
the  Jews  would  be  to  deprive  their  rabbis  of  power 
and  influence,  to  force  them  to  dress  in  the  German 
fashion,  and  use  the  Polish  language,  to  admit  them 
to  the  public  schools  and  other  educational  institu¬ 
tions,  and,  above  all,  to  abrogate  the  laws  discrim¬ 
inating  between  them  and  their  Gentile  countrymen. 

Friedlander’s  advice  regarding  the  removal  of 
civil  disabilities  was  never  executed,  but  his  other 
suggestions  were  followed  out  with  more  vigor  than 
was  necessary  or  good.  To  do  away  with  the  rab¬ 
bis,  and  consequently  with  the  Talmud,  was  just 
what  was  desired.  It  was  partly  with  this  end  in 
view  that  Alexander  I  permitted,  that  is,  com¬ 
manded,  the  establishment  of  the  rabbinical  sem¬ 
inary  in  Warsaw.  But  when  it  was  found  that, 
although  the  seminary  students  were  provided  with 
all  necessaries,  and  notwithstanding  the  decree  that 
six  years  from  the  date  of  its  opening  none  but 
seminary  graduates  would  be  eligible  to  the  rab¬ 
binical  office,  few  students  availed  themselves  of 
the  opportunity  afforded,  and  none  obtained  posi- 

170 


CONFLICTS  AND  CONQUESTS 

tions,  the  whole  plan  fell  into  disfavor.8  The  Gov¬ 
ernment,  nevertheless,  remained  as  stubbornly  de¬ 
termined  as  ever,  and  unable  to  turn  all  the  children 
into  Cantonists,  it  decided  to  have  those  who  re¬ 
mained  at  home  gradually  converted  by  means  of 
a  method  worked  out  by  the  Minister  of  Education, 
Uvarov.  They  were  forced  to  attend  what  became 
known  as  Government  schools,  though  maintained 
exclusively  with  Jewish  funds.  In  order  to  win  the 
confidence  of  the  Jews  for  the  project,  Doctor 
Lilienthal,  whose  speech  at  the  dedication  of  the 
Riga  School  secured  him  a  diamond  ring  as  a  token 
of  the  czar’s  approval,  was  sent  from  St.  Peters¬ 
burg  on  a  mission  of  investigation,  more  especially 
of  persuasion. 

For  more  than  three  years  Lilienthal  was  one  of 
the  most  popular  personages  in  Europe.  The  eyes 
of  all  who  had  the  amelioration  of  the  lot  of  the 
Russian  Jew  at  heart,  it  may  be  said  the  eyes  of  the 
civilized  world,  were  fixed  upon  him  as  an  epoch- 
maker  in  the  history  of  the  Jews.  Nature  had 
formed  him,  physically  and  mentally,  to  be  a  leader 
among  his  people,  and  his  training  and  tempera¬ 
ment  made  it  easy  for  him  to  ingratiate  himself 
into  the  favor  of  the  great.  It  seemed  that  he  was 

171 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

just  the  man  to  be  the  successful  executor  of  the 
czar’s  plan. 

The  Maskilim,  above  all,  hailed  him  as  the 
champion  of  the  cause  of  Haskalah.  He  was  their 
Moses  or  Ezra,  the  God-sent  redeemer  of  their 
benighted  brethren  out  of  the  quagmire  of  fanati¬ 
cism.  From  various  cities  numerous  urgent  appeals 
came  to  him  to  hasten  the  execution  of  his  great 
plan.  Wherever  he  went,  he  was  enthusiastically 
received,  a  truly  royal  welcome  was  extended  to 
him.  The  Vilna  community  appropriated  five  thou¬ 
sand  rubles  for  the  school  fund,  and  pledged  itself 
to  raise  more  if  it  were  found  necessary;  and  he 
was  invited  also  to  Minsk  by  the  kahal  of  the  city. 

Unfortunately,  Lilienthal’s  tactics  exposed  him 
to  suspicion,  and  the  seed  of  discord  was  soon  sown 
between  him  and  his  former  admirers.  He  tried 
to  serve  two  masters,  the  czar  and  the  Jews,  and 
he  alienated  both.  The  pious  regarded  him  as  a 
mere  tool  in  the  hands  of  the  Government,  for, 
they  maintained,  education  without  emancipation 
leads  to  conversion.  The  enlightened  element  also 
lost  confidence  in  one  who,  instead  of  boldly  attack¬ 
ing  superstition,  preferred,  while  in  Minsk,  to 
identify  himself  not  only  with  the  Mitnaggedim, 
but  even  with  the  Hasidim.  He  was  also  too  head- 


172 


CONFLICTS  AND  CONQUESTS 

strong  and  too  vain  of  his  achievements.  Benjamin 
Mandelstamm,  who,  as  he  tells  us  in  his  letters, 
considered  Lilienthal  “  as  wise  as  Solomon  and  as 
enterprising  as  Moses,”  complains  a  little  later  of 
his  arrogance,  and  at  the  last  speaks  of  him  with 
contempt.  His  assumed  superiority  grieved  the 
Maskilim,  and  their  former  enthusiasm  was  rapidly 
replaced  by  hatred  and  persecution.  He  found  it 
necessary  to  put  himself  under  the  protection  of  the 
police  while  in  Minsk,  and  when  he  returned  to 
Vilna  his  reception  was  far  less  hearty  than  it  had 
been  before. 

In  order  to  regain  the  confidence  of  the  Russian 
Jews,  Lilienthal  obtained  a  permit  from  the  Min¬ 
ister  of  Education  to  call  an  assembly  of  prominent 
Jews  at  St.  Petersburg,  to  decide  for  themselves 
how  to  better  the  condition  of  the  existing  schools 
and  to  consider  the  practicability  of  establishing 
rabbinical  seminaries.  For  he,  too,  like  the  Mas¬ 
kilim,  considered  the  rabbis  the  chief  menace  to 
Haskalah.  Rabbinical  authority  was  supreme,  and 
if  the  rabbis  could  be  won  over,  all  would  be  gained. 
The  bell-wethers  once  secured,  the  flocks  were  sure 
to  follow.  It  took  a  long  time  for  Lilienthal,  and 
still  longer  for  the  Maskilim,  to  find  out  that  what 
they  regarded  as  the  cause  was  in  reality  the  con- 

173 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

sequence.  Eight  years  later  Lilienthal  himself  ad¬ 
mitted  the  sad  truth,  that  the  rabbinical  seminaries 
in  Russia  could  not  effect  the  coveted  end.  “  It 
must  not  be  lost  sight  of,”  says  he  in  his  Sketches 
of  Jewish  Life  in  Russia f  “  that  the  Russian  Jews 
live  strictly  in  accordance  with  our  received  laws, 
and  they  are  sufficiently  learned  in  them  to  know  that 
the  many  cases  of  conscience  which  are  of  constant- 
occurrence  cannot  be  decided  understanding^  by 
any  one  who  has  but  a  superficial  knowledge  of  the 
Talmud  and  of  the  decisions  of  the  later  doctors 
of  the  Law,  but  that  it  requires  the  study  of  an 
entire  lifetime  to  become  thoroughly  acquainted 
with  those  stupendous  monuments  of  learning  and 
deep  research  in  the  great  concerns  of  life.” 

After  several  busy  months  at  St.  Petersburg  and 
frequent  consultations  with  Count  Uvarov,  Lilien¬ 
thal  returned  to  Vilna,  and  two  weeks  later  he  pub¬ 
lished  his  circular  letter,  Maggid  Yeshuah  ( The 
Announcer  of  Good  Tidings)  T  The  “  good  tid¬ 
ings  ”  were  that  an  imperial  ukase  (June  22,  1842) 
would  convene  a  council  of  distinguished  Jews  at 
St.  Petersburg,  to  deliberate  how  to  “  re-educate  ” 
the  Jews.  Accordingly,  in  the  early  part  of  April, 
1843,  ^e  notables,  from  different  places  and  with 
diametrically  opposed  views,  assembled  in  the  Rus- 

174 


ALEXANDER  2EDERBAUM 
1816-1893 


V 


< 


V 


CONFLICTS  AND  CONQUESTS 


sian  capital.  Representing  the  Jews,  there  were 
Rabbi  Isaac  Volozhin,  the  dean  of  the  Tree  of  Life 
Yeshibah,  perhaps  the  strongest  man  present;  Rabbi 
Menahem  Mendel  Shneersohn  of  Lubavich,  leader 
of  the  Hasidic  reform  sect;  Joseph  Heilprin,  the 
financier  and  banker  of  Berdichev,  and  Bezalel 
(Basilius)  Stern,  principal  of  the  Jewish  public 
schools  of  Odessa.  Representing  the  Government 
were  Count  Uvarov,  Chevalier  Dukstaduchinsky, 
and  others,  with  de  Vrochenko,  Minister  of  State,  as 
chairman  and  Lilienthal  as  secretary.  Montefiore 
of  England,  Cremieux  of  France,  and  Rabbi  Phil- 
ippson  of  Germany  had  been  invited,  but  they  failed 
to  come.  The  council  decided  to  open  Jewish  pub¬ 
lic  schools  in  every  city  where  Jews  reside,  and  also 
two  rabbinical  seminaries,  the  one  in  Vilna,  the 
other  in  Zhitomir,  the  former  being  considered  the 
Jewish  metropolis  of  the  northwestern  part,  the 
latter,  of  the  southwestern  part,  of  Russia.  They 
also  proposed  to  do  away  with  the  Judeo-Polish 
garb,  and  suggested  certain  alterations  in  the  prayer 
book. 

The  delegates  met,  deliberated,  and  disbanded, 
but  the  tidings  announced  in  Lilienthal’s  epistle  did 
not  prove  to  be  good.  In  one  of  the  fables  of 
Kryloff,  fbe  Russian  iEsop,  we  are  told  that  once  a 

175 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

swan,  a  pike,  and  a  crab,  decided  to  make  a  trip 
together.  No  sooner  had  they  started  than,  in 
accordance  with  their  nature,  the  swan  began  to 
fly,  the  pike  to  shuffle  along,  the  crab  to  crawl  back¬ 
ward.  It  was  so  with  the  delegation  of  1843. 
Rabbi  Isaac,  the  rabid  Mitnagged,  could  find  but 
little  to  admire  in  the  proposals  of  Rabbi  Menahem 
Mendel,  the  ardent  Hasid,  and  both  were  bitterly 
opposed  to  the  view  preached  by  Doctor  Lilienthal, 
that  the  salvation  of  the  Jews  and  Judaism  would 
be  brought  about  by  a  system  of  education  adopted 
in  accordance  with  an  ukase  by  Nicholas.  Stern, 
too,  had  little  use  for  Lilienthal,  whom  he  declared 
to  be  ignorant  of  the  condition  of  Russian  Jews  and 
incapable  of  working  in  their  behalf.  From  such 
discord  nothing  good  could  come.  The  fact  is,  that 
the  few  resolutions  mentioned  had  been  drawn  up 
beforehand  by  the  Government  officials,  and  the 
time  and  trouble  and  expense  which  the  council  in¬ 
volved  were,  a  la  Russe f  for  appearance  sake.  Find¬ 
ing  his  efforts  an  utter  failure,  Lilienthal  went  to 
Odessa  with  letters  of  recommendation  from  Uva- 
rov  to  Vorontzov,  the  patron  of  Stern,  and  was 
elected  rabbi  of  that  enlightened  and  wealthy  com¬ 
munity.  But,  for  some  inexplicable  reason,  he  sud¬ 
denly  left  the  city  on  the  plea  of  visiting  friends  in 

176 


CONFLICTS  AND  CONQUESTS 

Germany,  and  went  to  the  United  States,  where  he 
remained  to  the  end  of  his  life,  and  became  one  of 
the  leading  rabbis  and  communal  workers  among 
his  coreligionists  whose  lines  had  fallen  in  pleasanter 
places  than  the  fortunes  of  those  he  had  left  behind 
in  Russia.11 

For  Lilienthal’s  disillusionment  came  apace,  and 
he  finally  recognized  the  error  of  his  ways.  In  his 
book,  My  Travels  in  Russia,  published  both  in 
English  and  in  German,  he  admits  that  the  op¬ 
ponents  of  the  schools  he  advocated  were  after  all 
in  the  right.  Education  without  emancipation  was 
indeed  the  straightest  road  to  conversion.  Witness 
the  thirty  thousand  Jewish  apostates  in  St.  Peters¬ 
burg  and  Moscow  alone,  most  of  whom  hailed  from 
the  Baltic  provinces,  where  the  Jews  were  more 
cultured,  but  not  less  oppressed,  than  their  brethren. 

Those  men — says  he — who  have  acquired  from  study  an  idea  of 
the  rights  of  man,  and  that  the  Jew  ought  to  enjoy  the  same 
privileges  as  every  other  citizen;  those  men  who  tried,  by  the 
knowledge  they  had  obtained,  to  open  for  themselves  better 
prospects  in  life,  and  now  saw  every  hope  frustrated  by  laws 
inimical  to  them  only  as  Jews,  ran,  from  mere  despair,  into  the 
bosom  of  the  Greek  Church.  The  harassing  care  for  a  living,  the 
terrible  difficulties  in  surmounting  them  forced  them,  in  an  hour 
of  distress,  to  deny  their  faith.  I  always  compared  them  with 
the  Anusim  [forced  converts]  of  Spain.  Among  them  there  is  no 

12  177 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


religious  indifference,  as  is  the  case  in  Western  Europe  and 
Germany;  and  I  have  met  with  many  converted  Jews  there,  who, 
with  tears  in  their  eyes,  complained  of  heart-burnings  and  pangs 
of  conscience ;  and  they  look  upon  themselves  as  eternally  lost. 
Those  tears  will  show  a  heavy  balance  against  Czar  Nicholas, 
when,  bereft  of  his  earthly  power,  he  stands  before  the  eternal 
tribunal. 

The  other  charge — he  says  again  after  refuting  several  accusa¬ 
tions  of  the  kind  stated  above — the  other  charge,  that  the  Jews  are 
averse  to  secular  studies,  rests  upon  an  equally  erroneous  founda¬ 
tion.  For  even  in  Germany  Jewish  parents  have  at  length  found 
out  that  it  is  absolute  folly  to  let  their  sons  devote  themselves  to 
the  study  of  science,  since  they  never  can  hope  for  obtaining  the 
least  office;  and  since  many  a  one,  after  the  best  years  of  his 
youth  are  passed,  tired  of  waiting,  and  fearful  of  not  having  in 
his  old  age  any  means  of  support,  finds  in  the  baptismal  font  the 
last  anchor  of  his  shattered  hopes.  How  much  more  must  this 
consideration  have  weight  in  Russia?  Nicholas,  instead  of  en¬ 
couraging  the  Jews  to  study,  ordered,  on  the  contrary,  that  all 
such  of  them  as  held  offices  and  insignia  of  distinction  under  Alex¬ 
ander  should  either  resign  or  become  apostates.  I  know  myself 
several  collegiate  councillors  and  men  attached  to  the  court,  who 
went  to  the  synagogue  on  the  Day  of  Atonement  with  the  insignia 
of  the  order  of  St.  Anna  around  their  neck,  and  prayed  there 
with  devotion  and  fervor,  who  still  were  forced  into  apostasy. 
Such  instances  are  not  calculated  to  encourage  Jewish  parents  to 
let  their  children  study;  and  it  is  but  too  true  that  many  whose 
inclination  led  them  to  study  were  carried  thereby  into  the  bosom 
of  the  Christian  Church.12 


178 


CONFLICTS  AND  CONQUESTS 

After  almost  half  a  decade  of  indefatigable 
labor,  Lilienthal  finally  came  to  understand  the 
Russian  State  policy,  “  to  assign  a  plausible  reason 
for  every  act  done  by  the  Government,  in  order  to 
stand  justified  in  the  estimation  of  Europe,  whilst 
they,  by  throwing  dust  in  the  eyes  of  the  public, 
conceal  their  true  purpose.”  The  laws  which 
seemed  favorable  to  the  Jews,  and  apparently 
aimed  at  promoting  culture  among  them,  went 
hand  in  hand  with  laws  of  the  most  rigorous  char¬ 
acter.  It  is  true  that  the  Jews  were  not  the  only 
unfortunates  whom  the  fanatic  autocrat  wished  to 
Russify,  that  is,  compel  to  see  the  pure  light  of 
Greek  Orthodoxy.  But  they,  of  course,  suffered 
the  most.  The  slightest  laws  were  enforced  by 
the  chinovniks  (officials)  with  the  knout  and  the 
leaden  lash.  When  the  Judeo-Polish  gaberdine, 
the  long  side-curls  (peot),  and  the  wig  or  turban 
(knup)  fell  into  disfavor  with  the  Government,  the 
miserable  offender  caught  by  an  officer  seldom 
saved  himself  with  the  mere  sacrifice  of  knup,  coat, 
peot,  and  beard.  And  when  the  time  arrived  for 
the  execution  of  the  more  important  laws,  such  as 
the  Exportation  Act  of  April  20,  1843,  n0  fiendish 
ingenuity  could  surpass  the  cruelty  of  the  Cossacks. 
This  ukase  more  than  any  other,  it  is  claimed,  em- 

179 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


bittered  Lilienthal  against  Russia,  and  caused  him 
to  flee  to  where  he  could  say  as  one  awakening  from 
a  nightmare:  “The  horrible  hatred  against  the 
Jews  in  Russia  is  nothing  more  to  me  than  a  hazy 
remembrance.  My  soul  is  no  longer  oppressed  by 
frightful  pictures  of  tyranny  and  persecution.”  13 
He  was  in  the  land  of  the  free  ! 

The  Lilienthal  tragedy  thus  came  to  a  premature 
close.  The  hero  disappeared  at  the  beginning  of 
the  play.  He  had  the  potency,  but  he  lacked  the 
conditions,  for  producing  great  results.  His  Ger¬ 
man  birth  and  training,  the  very  qualities  which 
recommended  him  to  the  Government,  operated 
against  him  when  he  came  to  deal  with  Russian 
Jews.  Yet  he  succeeded  in  giving  a  strong  impetus 
to  the  Haskalah  movement,  and  budded  better  than 
he  knew.  The  statement  in  his  address  at  the  dedi¬ 
cation  of  the  Riga  school,14  “  This  hour  we  may 
call  the  hour  of  the  renaissance  of  the  mental  edu¬ 
cation  of  Israel,”  which  reads  like  an  oratorical 
platitude,  was  not  entirely  visionary.  The  real 
history  of  Haskalah  in  Russia  commences  with 
Lilienthal. 

Time  helped  greatly  to  restore,  even  to  deepen, 
the  affection  of  the  Maskilim  for  Lilienthal.  A 
modern  critic  speaking  of  “  life  and  literature  ”  in 

180 


CONFLICTS  AND  CONQUESTS 

Hebrew,  pictures  him  in  glowing  colors,  and  fin¬ 
ishes  his  description  thus: 

I  have  presented  to  you,  reader,  a  man  of  deep  culture,  known 
and  respected  in  the  highest  circles,  and  yet  inseparably  connected 
with  his  race  and  religion,  and  ready  to  offer  his  life  for  their 
welfare ;  a  man  who  worked  with  might  and  main  for  others 
at  the  sacrifice  of  his  own  comfort  and  advancement;  an  orator 
whose  exalted  phrases  shattered  the  pillars  and  foundations  of 
ignorance  and  superstition ;  a  hero  who  in  time  of  peril  was  proof 
against  the  arrows  and  missiles  of  the  enemy,  and  who  did  not 
relax  his  hand  from  the  flag.  But  what  was  the  fruit  he  reaped? 
Mostly  ingratitude  and  persecution,  a  heart  lacerated  with  despair, 
a  soul  writhing  under  the  pangs  of  frustrated  hopes.  Such  a 
personality  with  its  fine  shades,  and  with  the  poetry  of  the  artist 
superimposed,  would  afford  splendid  material  for  the  hero  of  a 
novel — a  hero  to  captivate  the  eye  and  heart  of  the  reader  by  his 
nobility  and  grandeur.1’ 

For  a  long  time  Russian  officialdom  discussed  the 
question,  whether  the  establishment  of  exclusively 
Jewish  schools  would  prove  beneficial,  but  nobody 
doubted  the  efficacy  of  rabbinical  seminaries.  Yet 
it  was  these  latter  institutions  that  evoked  the 
strongest  protests  from  the  Jews.  The  advocates 
of  Haskalah  gradually  came  to  recognize  the  truth, 
which  Lilienthal  admitted  afterwards,  that  for  a 
Russian  rabbi  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  Talmud 
was  absolutely  indispensable.  But  it  was  with  the 

181 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


object  of  discouraging  such  knowledge  that  the 
seminaries  had  been  suggested  by  Uvarov,  and  it 
was  this  study  that  was  almost  entirely  ignored  in 
them.  What  congregation,  many  of  whose  mem¬ 
bers  were  profound  Talmudists,  would  accept  a 
rabbi  to  whom  unvocalized  Hebrew  was  a  snare 
and  a  stumbling-block?  Moreover,  the  whole  at¬ 
mosphere  of  the  seminaries  was  Christian,  nay, 
military.  Not  a  few  members  of  their  faculties 
or  boards  of  governors  were  discharged  police  offi¬ 
cers  or  superannuated  soldiers,  and  at  the  head  of 
the  seminary  in  Vilna,  the  metropolis  of  Russian 
Jewry,  stood  an  apostate  Jew !  They  became,  as  it 
were,  infirmaries  of  the  bureaucracy,  where,  at  the 
expense  of  the  Jews,  it  could  stow  away  anyone 
who  had  proved  a  failure  or  was  no  longer  useful. 
The  Government  also  undertook  to  provide  the 
graduates  with  positions,  patronage  which  rendered 
the  students  insolently  independent  of  their  core¬ 
ligionists,  and  encouraged  some  of  them  to  indulge 
in  a  modus  vivendi  distasteful  to  their  future  flocks. 
The  graduates,  therefore,  proved  failures  as  rabbis, 
and  the  Government  was  forced  to  provide  for 
them  by  appointing  them  as  teachers.16 

If  this  was  the  case  with  the  rabbinical  semi¬ 
naries,  we  can  easily  imagine  the  state  of  the  subor- 

182 


CONFLICTS  AND  CONQUESTS 

dinate  schools.  The  Christian  principals  were 
coarse  and  uneducated  as  a  rule,  and  did  their  best 
to  prejudice  the  children  against  their  religion. 
Scattered  all  over  the  Pale  were  to  be  found  Jews 
competent  to  fill  positions  not  only  as  teachers  in 
inferior  grades  but  as  professors  in  the  universities. 
Yet  Lilienthal  was  advised  ( 1841)  to  advertise  for 
three  hundred  teachers  in  Germany.  Finally  the 
Government  decided  to  employ  Jews  as  teachers 
of  Hebrew  only,  the  least  important  subject  in  the 
curriculum;  for  instruction  in  the  secular  branches 
none  but  Christians  were  eligible.  No  Jews  were 
allowed  to  become  rectors  in  their  own  schools,  and 
their  salaries  were  so  small  that  they  could  not 
support  themselves  without  teaching  an  additional 
class,  which  was  prohibited.  A  Jew  might,  indeed, 
become  an  “  honorable  overseer  ”  (pochotny  blyus- 
tityel),  to  mediate  between  pupils  and  parents,  but 
the  title  was  the  only  pay  attached  to  the  office.  Re¬ 
spectable  parents,  therefore,  kept  their  children 
at  home,  or  rather  in  the  heder,  and  many  a  child’s 
name  was  on  the  roll  of  attendance  who  was  not 
even  aware  of  the  existence  of  the  school.  “  Every 
year  in  the  autumn,”  relates  a  writer  a  quarter  of 
a  century  later,  “  there  was  a  kind  of  compulsory 
recruiting  of  Jewish  children  for  the  Government 

183 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

school,  accompanied  sometimes  by  struggles  between 
the  victims  and  their  enemies, — scenes  without  a 
parallel,  in  some  respects,  in  the  civilized  world. 
I  remember  how  poor  mothers  and  sisters  wept 
with  despair  when  some  boy  of  the  family  was  car¬ 
ried  off  or  enlisted  by  the  officers  to  be  a  pupil  of  a 
Government  school.”  Like  the  poimaniki,  the  poor 
and  the  orphaned  were  compelled,  or  induced,  to 
fill  the  class-rooms  shunned  by  the  rich  and  respect¬ 
able,  and  though  the  Government  not  only  con¬ 
demned  the  ancient  Hebrew  institutions,  but  de¬ 
clared  the  twenty  thousand  teachers  who  imparted 
instruction  in  them  to  be  outlaws  and  criminals,  the 
melammedim  pursued  their  vocation  as  ever,  and 
the  hadarim,  Talmud  Torahs,  yeshibot,  and  batte 
midrashim  swarmed  with  students  of  the  prohibited 
learning.17 

Nicholas  was  paid  measure  for  measure,  and  the 
cunning  of  his  ministers  was  made  of  no  avail  by 
the  shrewdness  of  his  Jewish  subjects.  The  report 
of  the  Minister  of  Education,  at  the  end  of  1845, 
shows  incredible  progress.  It  states  that  since  the 
ukase  of  November  13,  1844,  i.  e.  in  the  course  of 
a  single  year,  more  than  two  thousand  schools  of 
different  grades  were  established  in  various  cities 
of  the  Pale,  with  more  than  one  hundred  and  eighty 

184 


CONFLICTS  AND  CONQUESTS 

thousand  pupils,  not  including  the  technical  schools 
in  Odessa,  Riga,  Kishinev,  Vilna,  and  Uman,  with 
their  hundreds  of  students!  The  truth  was  that, 
instead  of  the  reported  Russification,  there  had 
set  in  a  vigorous  reaction,  which  rendered  the  posi¬ 
tion  more  critical.  Both  sides  had  become  des¬ 
perate.18  Some  Maskilim,  emboldened  by  the  in¬ 
terest  the  Government  evinced  in  their  efforts,  had 
resorted  to  all  manner  of  means  to  accomplish  their 
object,  and  frequently  allied  themselves  with  the 
oppressors.  The  Slavuta  publishing  house,  it  is 
claimed,  was  closed,  and  the  Schapiras  met  with 
their  tragic  end,  because  “  as  printers  they  scrupu¬ 
lously  abstained  from  publishing  Haskalah  litera¬ 
ture.”  Maskilim  were  employed  by  the  authorities 
as  tax  collectors,  and  these,  as  is  ever  the  case  with 
rapacious  farmers  of  taxes,  besides  executing  the 
harsh  laws  of  the  tyrant,  looked  also  to  their  own 
aggrandizement,  and  harassed  their  pious  core¬ 
ligionists  in  all  ways  conceivable.  Many  of  thern 
even  hindered  the  colonization  movement,  because, 
if  allowed  to  mature,  it  would  deprive  them  of  their 
income.19  In  addition  to  this,  the  Jews  were  now 
burdened,  through  the  instrumentality  of  the  Mas¬ 
kilim,  with  a  tax  on  the  candles  lighted  on  Sabbath 
eve,  yielding  annually  over  one  million  rubles,  the 

185 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


greater  part  of  which  went  into  the  coffers  of  greedy 
officials.  Another  tax,  also  for  the  maintenance 
of  the  newly-organized  Government  schools,  was 
levied — one  kopeck  and  a  half  per  page ! — on  text¬ 
books,  whether  imported  from  abroad  or  pub¬ 
lished  in  Vilna  or  Zhitomir,  and  the  text-books  were 
published  with  unnecessarily  large  type  and  wide 
margins  to  increase  the  number  of  pages.  The 
abridgment  and  translation  of  Maimuni’s  Mish- 
neh  Torah  (St.  Petersburg,  1851),  superintended 
by  Leon  Mandelstamm,  cost  the  Russian  Jews  tens 
of  thousands  of  rubles,  notwithstanding  the  expendi¬ 
ture  of  two  or  three  millions  on  their  own  educa¬ 
tional  institutions,  and  at  a  time  when  every  kopeck 
was  needed  for  the  support  of  the  host  of  victims 
of  fire,  famine,  and  cholera,  which  ravaged  many 
a  city.  Hence  the  reaction  became  more  and  more 
formidable.  The  cry  grew  louder  and  louder, 
Znaty  nye  znayem,  shkolles  nye  zhelayem!  (“We 
want  no  schools !  ” ) .  The  opposition,  which  began 
in  the  latter  years  of  Alexander  I,  reached  its  cul¬ 
mination  in  the  last  decade  of  the  reign  of  Nicholas 
I.  “  Israel,”  laments  Mandelstamm,  “  seems  to 
be  even  worse  than  formerly;  he  is  like  a  sick  person 
who  has  convalesced  only  to  relapse,  and  the  physi¬ 
cians  are  beginning  to  despair.”  It  was  a  struggle 

186 


CONFLICTS  AND  CONQUESTS 


not  unlike  that  all  over  Europe  at  the  beginning 
of  the  Renaissance,  a  struggle  between  liberty  and 
authority,  between  this  world  and  other-worldli- 
ness,  between  the  spirit  of  the  nineteenth  century 
and  that  of  the  millenniums  which  preceded  it. 

Here  is  a  description,  by  Morgulis,  of  the  strug¬ 
gles  and  conquests  of  the  new,  small,  but  zealous, 
group  of  Maskilim  in  Russia  at  about  that  time: 20 

Those  upon  whom  the  sun  of  civilization  and  freedom 
happened  to  cast  a  ray  of  light,  showing  them  the  path  leading 
to  a  new  life,  were  compelled  to  study  the  European  literatures 
and  sciences  in  garrets,  in  cellars,  in  any  nook  where  they  felt 
themselves  secure  from  interference.  Neither  unaffiliated  Jews 
nor  the  outer  world  knew  anything  about  them.  Like  rebels  they 
kept  their  secrets  unto  themselves,  stealthily  assembling  from  time 
to  time,  to  consider  how  they  might  realize  their  ideal,  and  dis¬ 
close  to  their  brethren  the  fountainhead  of  the  living  waters  out 
of  which  they  drank  and  drew  new  youth  and  life.  Whatever 
was  novel  was  accepted  with  delight.  They  looked  with  envy 
upon  the  great  intellectual  progress  of  their  western  brethren. 
Fain  would  they  have  had  their  Jewish  countrymen  recognize  the 
times  and  their  requirements,  but  they  could  not  give  free 
utterance  to  their  thoughts.  On  the  contrary,  they  found  it  ex¬ 
pedient  to  assume  the  mask  of  religion  in  order  to  escape  the 
suspicion  of  alert  zealots,  and  gain,  if  possible,  new  recruits.  In 
many  places  societies  were  founded  under  the  name  of  Lovers 
of  the  New  Haskalah,  the  members  of  which  observed  such 
secrecy  that  even  their  kinsmen  and  those  among  whom  they 

187 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

dwelt  were  unaware  of  their  existence.  If  through  the  discovery 
of  some  forbidden  book  any  of  them  happened  to  be  detected, 
he  never  betrayed  his  friends.  Such  a  one  was  usually  com¬ 
pelled  to  marry,  so  that,  being  burdened  with  family  cares,  he 
might  desist  from  his  unpopular  pursuits. 

From  which  it  would  appear  that  though  the  oppo¬ 
sition  to  Haskalah  in  Russia  was  by  no  means  as 
violent  as  had  been  the  opposition  to  enlightenment 
in  France,  for  instance,  or  even  among  the  Jews 
of  Germany  and  Austria,21  it  was  a  bitter  and  stub¬ 
born  conflict  between  parents  and  children  in  the 
adjustment  of  old  ideals  to  a  new  environment. 

Aside  from  the  hindrances  which  Haskalah  en¬ 
countered  because  of  Nicholas’s  conversionist  pol¬ 
icy,  it  was  greatly  hampered  by  the  geographical 
distribution  of  the  Jews.  Here  again  the  czar  de¬ 
feated  his  own  end  by  segregating  the  three  or  four 
million  of  his  Jewish  subjects  in  certain  districts, 
technically  called  the  Pale,  the  greatest  ghetto  the 
world  has  ever  known.  It  was  a  Judea  in  itself. 
The  Jews  there  seldom  came  in  contact  with  outside 
civilization.  The  languages  they  used  were  Hebrew 
as  the  literary  tongue,  Yiddish  among  themselves, 
and  the  local  Slavonic  dialect  with  their  non-Jewish 
neighbors.  Russian  was  strange,  not  only  to  the 
great  majority  of  Jews,  but  to  the  Russians  them- 

188 


CONFLICTS  AND  CONQUESTS 

selves.  It  was  merely  the  State  language,  and  even 
the  Government  officials  fell  back  on  their  mother 
tongue  whenever  they  were  at  liberty  to  do  so.  It 
was  this  that  made  it  very  difficult  for  the  Jews  to 
be  Russified. 

But  even  if  Russification  had  been  a  much  easier 
process,  Russian  civilization  was  hardly  worth  the 
having.22  To  become  Russified  would  have  meant 
not  only  religious  but  also  intellectual  suicide. 
Whatever  was  good  in  the  Russia  of  that  day  was 
an  importation.  The  language  was  scarcely  beyond 
the  barbarous  state.  Its  literature  possessed  neither 
original  nor  adopted  writings,  no  profound  phil¬ 
osophical  systems,  no  Rousseau  or  Goethe,  no 
Franklin  or  Kant,  not  even  any  practical  informa¬ 
tion  with  which  to  reward  the  student.  The  best 
writers  were  Kryloff,  Pushkin,  Zhukovsky,  and 
Dyerzhavin.  The  prices  of  books  were  so  high  as 
to  make  them  unattainable.  Karamzin’s  History  of 
the  Russian  Empire  sold  at  fifty-five  rubles  per 
copy.  The  royal  library,  which  had  been  founded 
by  the  Jewish  court  physician  Sanchez,  contained 
only  eight  Russian  books  during  the  reign  of  Alex¬ 
ander  I,  and  not  many  more  were  added  by  his  suc¬ 
cessor.  The  dramatic  art  developed  by  the  Jewish 
playwright  Nebakhovich  remained  for  a  long  time 

189 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


in  the  same  state  as  when  he  ceased  his  work.23  If 
Russia  was  the  most  powerful,  it  continued  to  be 
the  most  fanatical  and  uncivilized  country  in  Eu¬ 
rope.  All  who  had  occasion  to  visit  and  study  it 
during  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  testify 
to  its  deplorable  intellectual  status.  According  to 
a  very  ingenious  and  observing  writer,  quoted  by 
Buckle  in  his  History  of  Civilization ,  it  consisted 
of  but  two  ranks,  the  highest  and  the  lowest,  or  the 
nobility  and  the  serfs:  Les  marchands ,  qui  for - 
maient  une  classe  moyenne y  sont  en  si  petit  nombre 
qu}il  ne  peuvent  marquer  dans  I’etat;  d} ailleurs 
presque  tons  sont  Strangers.  The  higher  classes 
were  distinguished  for  “  a  total  absence  of  all 
rational  tastes  on  literary  topics.” 

Here  [in  Russia] — the  same  writer  continues — it  is  absolutely 
mauvais  genre  to  discuss  a  rational  subject — pure  pedanterie  to  be 
caught  upon  any  topics  beyond  dressing,  dancing,  and  a  jolie 
tournure.  Military  prowess  is  ranked  far  above  scholarly 
attainment,  and  a  man  in  a  uniform,  no  matter  how  depraved, 
takes  precedence  of  one  in  plain  clothes,  whatever  his  achieve¬ 
ments.  All  the  energies  of  the  nation  are  turned  towards  the 
army.  Commerce,  the  law,  and  the  civil  employments  are  held 
in  no  esteem;  all  young  men  of  any  consideration  betake  them¬ 
selves  to  the  profession  of  arms.  Nothing  astonished  them  more 
than  to  see  the  estimation  in  which  the  civil  professions,  and 
especially  the  bar,  are  held  in  Great  Britain.24 

190 


CONFLICTS  AND  CONQUESTS 

How  different  was  the  position  of  the  Jews  in 
other  countries,  especially  in  Germany!  Culture 
streamed  upon  them  from  all  sides.  As  their  num¬ 
bers  were  small,  and  as  they  lived,  in  most  cases, 
in  the  larger  cities  of  the  empire,  their  contact  with 
the  Christian  world  was  immediate  and  continuous. 
And  then  the  irresistible  fascination  of  German 
literature,  and  the  easy,  almost  imperceptible  trans¬ 
ition  from  the  Judeo-German  to  the  Teutonic- 
German  !  All  this  and  many  minor  allurements 
were  potent  enough  to  draw  even  the  heretofore 
callous  German  Jews  out  of  their  isolation,  and 
their  Germanization  by  the  middle  of  the  nine¬ 
teenth  century  was  an  established  fact.  No  wonder, 
then,  that,  unlike  Russian  JewTry,  the  German  Jews 
experienced  an  unprecedented  revolution;  that  the 
difference  between  the  Mendelssohnian  generation 
and  the  next  following  was  almost  as  great  as  that 
between  the  modern  American  Jew  and  his  brother 
in  the  Orient.  No  wonder,  also,  that  when  Has- 
kalah  finally  took  root  in  Russia,  it  was  purely  Ger¬ 
man  for  fifty  years  and  more ;  that  Nicholas’s  vigor¬ 
ous  attempts,  instead  of  making  the  Slavonic  Jews 
better  Russians,  merely  helped  to  make  those  he 
“  re-educated  ”  greater  admirers  of  Germany.  The 
most  puissant  autocrat  of  Russia  unwittingly  con- 

191 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

tributed  to  the  downfall  of  Russian  autocracy,  and 
Gregori  Peretz,  the  Dekabrist,  son  of  the  financier 
who  became  converted  under  Alexander  I,  was  the 
first  of  those  who  were  to  endeavor,  with  book  and 
bomb,  to  break  the  backbone  of  tyranny  under 
Nicholas  II.25 

Till  about  the  “  sixties,”  then,  the  Russo-Jewish 
Maskilim  were  the  recipients,  and  the  German  Jews 
were  the  donors.  The  German  Jews  wrote,  the 
Russian  Jews  read.  Germany  was  to  the  Jewish 
world,  during  the  early  Haskalah  movement,  what 
France,  according  to  Guizot,  was  to  Europe  during 
the  Renaissance :  both  received  an  impetus  from  the 
outside  in  the  form  of  raw  ideas,  and  modified  them 
to  suit  their  environment.  Berlin  was  still,  as  it 
had  been  during  the  days  of  Mendelssohn  and 
Wessely,  the  sanctuary  of  learning,  the  citadel  of 
culture.  In  the  highly  cultivated  German  literature 
they  found  treasures  of  wisdom  and  science.  The 
poetical  gems  of  Goethe,  Schiller,  Lessing,  and 
Herder  captivated  their  fancy;  the  philosophy  of 
Kant  and  Fichte,  Schelling  and  Hegel  nourished 
their  intellect.  Kant  continued  to  be  the  favorite 
guide  of  Maimon’s  countrymen,  and  in  their 
love  for  him  they  interpreted  the  initials  of  his 
name  to  mean  “  For  my  soul  panteth  after  thee.”  24 

192 


CONFLICTS  AND  CONQUESTS 


But  more  efficacious  than  all  other  agencies  was 
Mendelssohn’s  German  translation  of  the  Bible, 
and  the  Biur  commentary  published  therewith.  Re¬ 
naissance  and  Reformation,  those  mighty,  revolu¬ 
tionary  forces,  have  entered  every  country  by  side- 
doors,  so  to  say.  The  Jewish  Pale  was  no  exception 
to  the  rule.  What  Wycliffe’s  translation  did  for 
England,  and  Luther’s  for  Germany,  Mendels¬ 
sohn’s  did  for  Russian  Jewry.  Like  the  Septua- 
gint,  it  marked  a  new  epoch  in  the  history  of  Jewish 
advancement.  It  is  said  that  Mendelssohn’s  aim 
was  chiefly  to  show  the  grandeur  of  the  Hebrew 
poetry  found  in  the  Bible,  but  by  the  irony  of  fate 
his  translation  displayed  to  the  Russian  Jew  the 
beauty  and  elegance  of  the  German  language.  To 
the  member  of  the  Lovers  of  the  New  Haskalah, 
surreptitiously  studying  the  Bible  of  the  “  Des- 
sauer,”  the  Hebrew  was  rather  a  translation  of, 
or  commentary  on,  the  German,  and  served  him  as 
a  bridge  to  cross  over  into  the  otherwise  hardly 
accessible  field  of  German  literature. 

The  cities  on  the  borders  of  Russia  were  the  first 
strongholds  of  Haskalah,  and  among  them,  as 
noted  before,  few  struggled  so  intensely  for  their 
intellectual  and  civil  emancipation  as  those  in  the 
provinces  of  Courland  and  Livonia.  Though  their 

193 


13 


THE  HASKALAIi  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


lot  was  not  better  than  that  of  their  coreligionists, 
yet,  having  formerly  belonged  to  Germany,  and 
being  surrounded  by  a  people  whose  culture  was 
superior  to  that  of  the  rest  of  Russia,  they  were  the 
first  to  adopt  western  customs,  and  were  surpassed 
only  by  the  Jews  in  Germany  in  their  desire  for  re¬ 
form.  Their  strenuous  pleadings  for  equal  rights 
were,  indeed,  ineffectual,  but  this  did  not  lessen  their 
admiration  for  the  beauties  of  civilization,  nor 
blind  them  to  its  benefits.  “  Long  ago,”  remarks 
Lilienthal,  “  before  the  peculiar  Jewish  dress  was 
prohibited,  a  great  many  could  be  seen  here  [in 
Courland]  dressed  after  the  German  fashion,  speak¬ 
ing  pure  German,  and  having  their  whole  house¬ 
hold  arranged  after  the  German  custom.  The 
works  of  Mendelssohn  were  not  trefah  pasul  [un¬ 
clean  and  unfit],  the  children  visited  the  public 
schools,  the  academies,  and  the  universities.”  27 
The  beautiful  city  of  Odessa,  on  the  Black  Sea, 
at  that  time  just  out  of  its  infancy  and  full  of  the 
virility  and  aspiration  of  youth,  was  also  in  the 
full  glare  of  the  German  Haskalah  movement. 
With  its  wide  and  straight  streets,  its  public  and 
private  parks,  and  its  magnificent  structures,  it  pre¬ 
sents  even  to-day  a  marked  contrast  to  other  Rus¬ 
sian  cities,  and  the  Russians,  not  without  pride, 

194 


CONFLICTS  AND  CONQUESTS 

speak  of  it  as  “  our  little  Paris.”  In  the  upbuilding 
of  this  southern  metropolis  Jews  played  an  exceed¬ 
ingly  important  part.  For,  as  regards  the  promo¬ 
tion  of  trade  and  commerce,  Russia  had  outgrown 
the  narrow  policy  of  Elizabeta  Petrovna,  and  did 
not  begrudge  her  Jews  the  privilege  of  taking  the 
lead.  The  “  enemies  of  Christ  ”  were  permitted, 
even  invited,  to  accomplish  their  “  mission  ”  also 
in  Odessa,  and  thither  they  accordingly  came,  not 
only  from  Volhynia,  Podolia,  and  Lithuania,  but 
also  from  Germany,  Austria,  and  especially  Galicia. 
Erter,  Letteris,  Krochmal,  Perl,  Rapoport,  Eichen- 
baum,  Pinsker,  and  Werbel  became  better  known 
in  Russia  than  in  their  own  land.  As  the  Russo- 
Polish  Jews  had  carried  their  Talmudic  learning 
back  to  the  countries  whence  they  originally  re¬ 
ceived  it,  so  the  Galician  Jews,  mostly  hailing  from 
the  city  of  Brody,  where  Israel  Zamoscz,  Mendel 
Levin,  Joseph  Hakohen,  and  others  had  implanted 
the  germs  of  Haskalah,  now  reimported  it  into 
Russia.  The  Jews  of  Odessa  were,  therefore,  more 
cultured  than  other  Russian  Jews,  not  excepting 
those  of  Riga.  Prosperous  in  business,  they  lav¬ 
ished  money  on  their  schools,  and  their  educational 
system  surpassed  all  others  in  the  empire.  In  1826 
they  had  the  best  public  school  for  boys,  in  1835 

195 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

a  similar  one  for  girls,  and  in  1852  there  existed 
fifty-nine  public  schools,  eleven  boarding  schools, 
and  four  day  schools.  The  children  attended  the 
Richelieu  Lyceum  and  the  “  gymnasia  ”  in  larger 
proportion  than  children  of  other  denominations, 
and  they  were  among  the  first,  not  only  in  Russia, 
but  in  the  whole  Diaspora,  to  establish  a  “  choir- 
synagogue  ”  (1840).  “  In  most  of  the  families,” 
says  Lilienthal,  “  can  be  found  a  degree  of  refine¬ 
ment  which  may  easily  bear  comparison  with  the 
best  French  salon.”  Even  Nicholas  I  found  words 
of  praise  for  the  Odessa  Jews.  “  Yes,”  said  he, 
“  in  Odessa  I  have  also  seen  Jews,  but  they  were 
men”;  while  the  zaddik  “Rabbi  Yisrolze  ”  de¬ 
clared  that  he  saw  “  the  flames  of  Gehennah  round 
Odessa.”  28 

Warsaw,  too,  was  a  beneficiary  of  Germany, 
having  been  occupied  by  the  Prussians  before  it 
fell  to  the  lot  of  the  Russians.  It  was  there  that 
practically  the  first  Jewish  weekly  journals  were 
published  in  Yiddish  and  Polish,  Der  Beobachter 
an  der  Weichsel,  and  Dostrzegacz  Nadvisyansky 
(1823).  There  was  opened  the  first  so-called  rab¬ 
binical  seminary,  with  Anton  Eisenbaum  as  princi¬ 
pal,  and  Cylkov,  Buchner,  and  Kramsztyk  as 
teachers.  The  public  schools  were  largely  attended, 

196 


CONFLICTS  AND  CONQUESTS 

owing  to  the  efforts  of  Mattathias  Rosen,  and  a  year 
after  a  reformed  synagogue  had  been  organized  in 
Odessa  another  was  founded  in  Warsaw,  where 
sermons  were  preached  in  German  by  Abraham 
Mei'r  Goldschmidt. 

But  Riga  on  the  Baltic,  Odessa  on  the  Black  Sea, 
and  Warsaw  on  the  Vistula  were  outdone  by  some 
cities  in  the  interior.  Haskalah  lovers  multiplied 
rapidly,  and  were  found  in  the  early  “  forties  ”  in 
every  city  of  any  size  in  the  Pale.  “  The  further 
we  go  from  Pinsk  to  Kletzk  and  Nieszvicz,”  writes 
a  correspondent  in  the  Annalen,29  u  the  more  we 
lose  sight  of  the  fanatics,  and  the  greater  grows  the 
number  of  the  enlightened.”  With  the  establishment 
of  the  rabbinical  seminaries  in  Zhitomir  (1848), 
this  former  centre  of  Hasidism  became  the  nursery 
of  Haskalah.  The  movement  was  especially  strong 
in  Vilna,  the  “  Jerusalem  of  Lithuania,”  as  Napo¬ 
leon  is  said  to  have  called  it.  From  time  imme¬ 
morial,  long  before  the  Gaon’s  day,  it  had  been 
famous  for  its  Talmudic  scholars.  “  Its  yeshibot,” 
says  Jacob  Emden  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  “  were  closed  neither  by  day  nor  by  night; 
many  scholars  came  home  from  the  bet  ha-mid¬ 
rash  but  once  a  week.  They  surpassed  their 
brethren  in  Poland  and  in  Germany  in  learning  and 

197 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


knowledge,  and  it  was  regarded  of  much  conse¬ 
quence  to  secure  a  rabbi  from  Vilna.”  Now  this 
“  city  and  mother  in  Israel  ”  became  one  of  the 
pioneers  of  Haskalah,  all  the  more  because,  in 
addition  to  the  public  schools  and  the  rabbinical 
seminary,  the  Jews  were  admitted  to  its  university 
on  equal  terms  with  the  Gentiles.  “  Within  six 
years,”  exclaims  Mandelstamm,  “what  a  change 
has  come  over  Vilna  !  Youths  and  maidens,  anxious 
for  the  new  Haskalah,  are  now  to  be  met  with 
everywhere,  nor  are  any  ashamed  to  learn  a  trade.” 
The  schools  exerted  a  salutary  influence  on  the 
younger  generation,  and  the  older  people,  too, 
began  to  view  life  differently,  only  that  they  were 
still  reluctant  to  discard  their  old-fashioned  garb. 
There  also,  in  1847,  the  leading  Maskilim  started 
a  reform  synagogue,  which  they  named  Taharat  ha- 
Kodesh,  the  Essence  of  Holiness.30 

It  should  not  be  forgotten  that,  if  Lilienthal  met 
with  mighty  opposition,  he  also  had  powerful  sup¬ 
porters.  There  were  many  who,  though  remaining 
in  the  background,  strongly  sympathized  with  his 
plan.  Indeed,  the  number  of  educated  Jews,  as 
proved  by  an  investigation  ordered  by  Nicholas  I, 
was  far  greater  than  had  been  commonly  supposed. 
Not  only  in  the  border  towns,  but  even  in  the  in- 

198 


CONFLICTS  AND  CONQUESTS 


terior  of  the  Pale,  the  students  of  German  litera¬ 
ture  and  secular  science  were  not  few,  and  Doctor 
Loewe  discovered  in  Hebron  an  exceptional  Ger¬ 
man  scholar  in  the  person  of  an  immigrant  from 
Vilna.31  The  tendency  of  the  time  is  w7ell  illustrated 
by  an  anecdote  told  by  Slonimsky,  to  the  effect  that 
when  he  went  to  ask  the  approval  of  Rabbi  Abele 
of  Zaslava  on  his  Mosde  Hokmah,  he  found  that 
those  who  came  to  be  examined  for  ordination  re¬ 
ceived  their  award  without  delay,  while  he  was  put 
off  from  week  to  week.  Ill  at  ease,  Slonimsky  ap¬ 
proached  the  venerable  rabbi  and  demanded  an 
explanation:  “You  grant  a  semikah  [rabbinical 
diploma]  so  readily,  why  do  you  seem  so  reluctant 
when  a  mere  haskamah  [recommendation]  is  the 
matter  at  issue?  ”  To  his  surprise  the  reason  given 
was  that  the  rabbi  enjoyed  his  scientific  debates  so 
much  that  he  would  not  willingly  part  with  the 
young  author. 

Stories  were  told  how  the  deans  of  the  yeshibot 
were  frequently  found  to  have  mastered  the  very 
books  they  confiscated  because  of  the  teachings  they 
inculcated.  Before  the  reign  of  Nicholas  I  drew  to 
its  end,  Haskalah  centres  were  as  numerous  as  the 
cities  wherein  Jews  resided.  In  Byelostok  the 
Talmudist  Jehiel  Michael  Zabludovsky  was  lend- 

199 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


ing  German  books  to  young  Slonimsky,  the  future 
inventor  and  publicist;  in  Vlotslavek  Rabbi  Joseph 
Hayyim  Caro  was  writing  and  preaching  in  classic 
German;  in  Zhagory,  Hayyim  Sack  helped  Leon 
Mandelstamm  ( 1809-1889) ,  the  first  Jewish  “  can¬ 
didate,”  or  bachelor,  in  philology  to  graduate  from 
the  St.  Petersburg  University  (1844)  and  the 
assistant  and  successor  of  Lilienthal,  in  the  expurga¬ 
tion  and  German  translation  of  Maimuni’s  Misli- 
neh  Torah.  When,  in  1857,  Mandelstamm  re¬ 
signed,  he  was  followed  by  Seiberling,  for  fifteen 
years  the  censor  of  Jewish  books  in  Kiev,  upon 
whom  a  German  university  conferred  the  doctor’s 
degree.  The  poverty-stricken  Wolf  Adelsohn, 
known  as  the  Hebrew  Diogenes,  formed  a  group 
of  Seekers  after  Light  in  Dubno,  while  such  wealthy 
merchants  as  Abraham  Rathaus,  Lilienthal’s  secre¬ 
tary  during  his  campaign  in  Berdichev,  Issachar 
Bompi,  the  bibliophile  in  Minsk,  Leon  Rosenthal, 
financier  and  philanthropist  in  Brest-Litovsk,  and 
Aaron  Rabinovich,  in  Kobelyaki  (Poltava),  pro¬ 
moted  enlightenment  by  precept  and  example.  In 
Vilna,  Joseph  Sackheim’s  young  son  acted  as  English 
interpreter  when  Montefiore  was  entertained  by  his 
father,  and  Jacob  Barit,  the  incomparable  “  Yan- 
kele  Kovner”  (1793-1833),  another  of  Monte- 

200 


CONFLICTS  AND  CONQUESTS 

fiore’s  hosts,  was  master  of  Russian,  German,  and 
French,  and  aroused  the  admiration  of  the  Gover¬ 
nor-General  Nazimov  by  his  learning  and  his 
ability. 

Yes,  the  Jews  began  to  pay,  if  they  had  ever  been 
in  debt,  for  the  good  that  had  for  a  while  been  be¬ 
stowed  upon  them  by  Alexander  I.  Alexander 
Nebakhovich  was  a  well-known  theatrical  director, 
his  brother  Michael  was  the  editor  of  the  first  Rus¬ 
sian  comic  paper  Yeralash,  and  Osip  Rabinovich 
showed  marked  ability  in  serious  journalism.  In 
1842  died  Abraham  Jacob  Stern,  the  greatest  in¬ 
ventor  Russia  had  till  then  produced;  and,  as  if  to 
corroborate  the  statement  of  the  Talmud,  that 
when  one  sun  sets  another  rises,  the  Demidoff  prize 
of  two  thousand  five  hundred  rubles  was  the  same 
year  awarded  to  his  son-in-law,  Hayyim  Selig 
Slonimsky  (HaZas,  1810-1904)  of  Byelostok,  for 
the  first  of  his  valuable  inventions.  Stern’s  genius 
was  surpassed,  though  in  a  different  direction, 
only  by  that  of  Elijah  Vilna.  His  first  inven¬ 
tion  was  a  calculating  machine,  which  led  to  his 
election  as  a  member  of  the  Warsaw  Society  of  the 
Friends  of  Science  (1817)  and  to  his  being  received 
twice  by  Alexander  I  (1816,  1818),  who  bestowed 
upon  him  an  annual  pension  of  three  hundred  and 

201 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

fifty  rubles.  This  invention  was  followed  by  an¬ 
other,  “  a  topographical  wagon  for  the  measure¬ 
ment  of  level  surfaces,  an  invention  of  great  benefit 
to  both  civil  and  military  engineers.”  He  also  con¬ 
structed  an  improved  threshing  and  harvesting  ma¬ 
chine  and  a  sickle  of  immense  value  to  agriculture.32 

But  it  is  scarcely  possible,  nor  would  it  be  profit¬ 
able,  to  enumerate  either  the  places  or  the  persons 
who  were,  so  to  speak,  inoculated  with  the  Has- 
kalah  virus.  In  Grodno,  Kovno,  Lodz,  Minsk, 
Mohilev,  Pinsk,  Zamoscz,  Slutsk,  Vitebsk,  Zhagory, 
and  other  places,  they  were  toiling  zealously  and 
diligently,  these  anchorites  in  the  desert  of  knowl¬ 
edge.  Among  them  were  men  of  all  classes  and 
callings,  from  the  cloistered  Talmudist  to  the 
worldly  merchant.  The  path  of  Haskalah  was 
slowly  yet  surely  cleared.  The  efforts  of  the  con¬ 
servative  Maskilim  were  not  devoid  of  some  good 
results,  nor  even  were  those  of  Nicholas,  though 
aimed  at  Christianizing  rather  than  civilizing,  en¬ 
tirely  wasted.  With  all  their  shortcomings,  and 
though  producing  but  few  rabbis  acceptable  to 
Russo-Jewish  congregations,  the  seminaries  in  War¬ 
saw,  Zhitomir,  and  Vilna  were  powers  for  enlight¬ 
enment.  In  them  the  future  prominent  scientists, 
scholars,  and  litterateurs  were  reared,  and  there  the 

202 


k 


CONFLICTS  AND  CONQUESTS 

foundations  were  laid  for  the  activities  of  Gold- 
faden,  Gurland,  Harkavy,  Kantor,  Landau,  Le- 
vanda,  Mandelkern,  Paperna,  Pumpyansky,  Rosen¬ 
berg,  Steinberg,  and  others.  Their  fate  was  that 
of  Mendelssohn’s  Bible  translation.  The  end  be¬ 
came  a  means,  the  means,  an  end.  But  they  not 
only  “  brought  forth  ”  great  men,  they  rendered 
no  less  important  a  service  in  “  bringing  out  ”  those 
already  great.  Had  it  not  been  for  their  professor¬ 
ships,  men  like  Abramovitsch,  Lerner,  Plungian, 
Slonimsky,  Suchastover,  and  Zweifel,  who  were  not 
blessed  with  worldly  goods  like  Fiinn,  Katzenellen- 
bogen,  Luria,  or  Strashun,  would  probably  have 
sought  in  private  teaching  or  petty  trading  a  source 
of  subsistence,  and  Judaism  in  general  and  Russian 
Jewry  in  particular  would  have  sustained  a  con¬ 
siderable  loss.  They  helped  to  prepare  the  soil, 
even  to  implant  the  germ,  and 

Once  the  germ  implanted, 

Its  growth,  if  slow,  is  sure. 

As  the  history  of  this  period  is  incomplete  with¬ 
out  an  acquaintance  with  the  lives  of  some  of  the 
Maskilim  who  sowed  the  seeds  that  burst  into  blos¬ 
som  under  the  favorable  conditions  of  the  “  sixties,” 
I  shall  select,  as  specimens  out  of  a  multitude,  the 

203 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

two  who,  more  than  any  others,  furthered  the 
cause  of  Haskalah,  Isaac  Bar  Levinsohn  and  Mor- 
decai  Aaron  Gunzburg.33 

Isaac  Bar  Levinsohn  of  Kremenetz,  Volhynia 
(RiBaL,  1788-1860),  was  for  many  years  a  name 
to  conjure  with,  not  only  among  the  Maskilim  of 
all  shades,  but  also  among  their  opponents.  Long 
before  he  reached  man’s  estate,  he  had  entered 
upon  the  career  to  which  he  was  to  dedicate  his  life. 
Even  in  those  times  of  numerous  child  prodigies, 
Levinsohn  was  distinguished  for  his  intellectual 
precocity.  At  the  age  of  three  he  was  ripe  for  the 
heder.  At  nine  he  was  the  author  of  a  work  on 
Cabbala.  At  ten  he  mastered  the  Talmud,  and 
knew  the  entire  Hebrew  Bible  by  heart.  But  what 
singled  him  out  among  his  classmates  was  his  pas¬ 
sionate  love  of  secular  knowledge.  The  son  of 
Judah  Levin,  an  erudite  merchant  who  knew  He¬ 
brew  and  Polish  to  perfection,  the  grandson  of 
Jekuthiel  Solomon,  famed  for  wealth  and  refine¬ 
ment,  he  evinced  unusual  ability  in  selecting  and 
retaining  what  was  good  and  true  in  everything 
he  read.  At  fourteen  he  was  familiar  with  the 
literatures  of  several  nations,  so  that  during  the 
Franco- Russian  war  (1812)  he  easily  secured  an 
appointment  as  interpreter  and  secretary  in  the 

204 


CONFLICTS  AND  CONQUESTS 

local  police  department.  But  excessive  study  caused 
ill-health,  and  at  the  suggestion  of  his  physicians 
he  went  to  Brody  in  Galicia,  a  fortunate  incident 
in  the  otherwise  solitary  and  gloomy  life  of  the 
future  reformer,  for  next  to  Germany  Galicia 
played  an  important  part  in  the  Haskalah  move¬ 
ment  in  Russia.  There  he  met  Joseph  Perl,  the 
noted  educator;  Doctor  Isaac  Erter,  the  immortal 
satirist;  M.  H.  Letteris,  the  distinguished  poet; 
S.  L.  Rapoport,  one  of  the  first  and  profoundest  of 
Jewish  historians,  and  Nahman  Krochmal,  the 
saintly  philosopher.  Into  this  circle  of  “shining 
ones  ”  Levinsohn  was  introduced,  and  each  and  all 
left  an  impression,  some  greater,  some  less,  upon 
his  plastic  soul.  It  was  there  and  then,  in  the  con¬ 
genial  company  of  friends  of  about  his  own  age, 
that  Levinsohn  determined  to  devote  himself  to 
improving  the  educational  system  of  his  people  and 
began  to  plan  his  work  on  Learning  in  Israel 
( Teudah  be-Yisrael) ,  which  procured  for  its 
author  the  foremost  place  in  the  history  of  the 
Haskalah  movement. 

The  book  was  finished  in  1823,  but,  owing  to 
Levinsohn’s  pecuniary  circumstances,  it  remained 
unpublished  till  1828.  Meanwhile  it  circulated  in 
manuscript  among  the  leading  Maskilim  of  Russia, 

205 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


Austria,  and  Germany,  and  established  its  author’s 
reputation  wherever  it  was  read.  Levinsohn  was 
one  of  those  who  understand  the  persuasive  power 
of  the  still  small  voice  of  sweet  reasonableness.  He 
knew  that  a  few  convincing  arguments  couched  in 
gentle  language  will  accomplish  more  for  the  fur¬ 
therance  of  an  ideal  than  the  trumpet  call  of  a 
hundred  clamoring  militants,  and  Haskalah  will 
make  headway  only  when  it  can  prove  itself  to  be  a 
help,  and  not  a  hindrance,  to  religion.  Accordingly, 
he  aimed  to  show  that  the  Tanaim,  Amoraim,  Sabo- 
raim,  Geonim,  and  rabbis  of  later  generations  were 
versed  in  the  sciences,  were  familiar  with  foreign 
history,  and  interested  in  the  affairs  of  the  world. 
But  these  he  quotes  only  as  exemplars  of  broad¬ 
mindedness,  they  must  no  longer  be  regarded  as 
authorities  in  secular  knowledge.  “Art  and 
science,”  he  says,  “  are  steadily  progressing.  .  .  . 
To  perfect  ourselves  in  them  we  must  resort  to 
non-Jewish  sources.”  This  was  a  bold  statement 
for  those  times,  however  mildly  expressed.  The 
Teudah  became  a  bone  of  contention.  It  was  torn 
and  burnt  by  fanatics,  exalted  to  the  skies  by  friends. 
The  new  apostle  of  enlightenment  was  forced  to 
leave  the  city  and  reside  for  a  while  in  Berdichev, 
Nemirov,  Ostrog,  and  Tulchin.  But  wherever 

206 


CONFLICTS  AND  CONQUESTS 

he  went,  his  tribulation  was  sweetened  by  the  en¬ 
thusiasm  of  his  admirers  and  the  consciousness 
that  his  toil  was  not  entirely  wasted.  In  War¬ 
saw  and  in  Vilna  his  name  was  great,  and  Nicholas 
presented  him  with  a  thousand  rubles  as  a  mark  of 
appreciation  of  the  book,  the  fly-leaf  of  which  bears 
the  inscription  “  To  science.” 

In  the  midst  of  his  more  serious  studies  Levin- 
sohn  diverted  himself  occasionally  with  lighter  com¬ 
position,  in  which  many  an  antiquated  custom 
served  as  the  butt  for  his  biting  satire.  In  his 
youth  he  had  a  penchant  for  poetry,  and  his  poem 
on  the  flight,  or  expulsion,  of  the  French  from  Rus¬ 
sia  was  complimented  by  the  Government.  His 
muse  dealt  with  ephemeral  themes,  but  his  bons 
mots  are  current  among  his  countrymen  to  this  day. 
A  novel  sort  of  plagiarism  was  the  fashion  of  the 
time.  Authors  attributed  their  work  to  others,  in¬ 
stead  of  claiming  the  product  of  others  as  their 
own.  Levinsohn’s  Hefker  W elt }  in  Yiddish,  and 
Sayings  of  the  Saints  and  Valley  of  the  Dead ,  in 
Hebrew,  belong  to  this  category.  But  the  deep 
student  did  not  persist  long  in  this  species  of  diver¬ 
sion.  Wittgenstein,  the  field-marshal,  and  pro¬ 
fessors  at  the  Lyceum  of  his  town,  supplied  him 
with  books,  and  he,  an  omnivorous  reader,  plunged 

207 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

again  into  his  graver  work,  the  result  of  which  was 
the  little  book  since  translated  into  English,  Rus¬ 
sian,  and  German,  Efes  Dammim  (No  Blood!). 
As  the  name  indicates,  it  was  intended  as  a  defence 
against  the  blood,  or  ritual  murder,  accusation.  It 
was  the  right  word  in  the  right  time  and  place.  In 
Zaslav,  Volhynia,  this  monstrous  libel  had  been 
revived,  and  popular  fury  rose  to  a  high  pitch.  Sev¬ 
eral  years  later  the  Damascus  Affair  stirred  the 
Jewish  world  to  determined  action,  designed  to 
stamp  it  out  once  for  all.  To  wage  war  against  this 
superstitious  belief  seems  to  have  fallen  to  the  lot 
of  several  of  Levinsohn’s  family.  In  1757,  when 
it  asserted  itself  in  Yampoly,  Volhynia,  his  great- 
uncle,  by  the  unanimous  consent  of  the  Council  of 
the  Four  Countries,  was  sent  to  Rome  to  intercede 
with  the  Pope.  After  six  years  of  pleading,  he 
returned  to  his  native  land  with  a  signed  statement 
addressed  to  the  Polish  king  and  nobles,  which  de¬ 
clared  the  accusation  to  be  utterly  false.  Another 
uncle  of  his  had  performed  a  similar  task  in  1749. 
True  scion  of  a  noble  family,  Levinsohn  followed 
in  their  wake,  and  his  effort  was  declared  to  be  a 
“  sharp  sword  forged  by  a  master,  to  fight  for  our 
honor.” 

Everything  was  against  Levinsohn  when  he 

208 


CONFLICTS  AND  CONQUESTS 

started  on  his  third  great  work,  The  House  of 
Judah  ( Bet  Yehudah).  He  found  himself  poor, 
sick,  and  alone,  and  deprived  of  his  fine  library.  In 
those  days,  and  for  a  long  time  before  and  after¬ 
wards,  Hebrew  authors  were  paid  in  kind.  In 
return  for  their  copyright  they  received  a  number 
of  copies  of  their  books,  which  they  were  at  liberty 
to  dispose  of  as  best  they  could.  Now,  while 
Levinsohn’s  copies  of  his  Bet  Yehudah  were  still 
at  the  publisher’s,  a  fire  broke  out,  and  most  of 
them  were  consumed. 

The  Teudah  he-Y  Israel  had  been  prompted  by 
a  desire  to  prove  the  compatibility  of  modern  civi¬ 
lization  with  Judaism.  Levinsohn’s  object  in  writ¬ 
ing  his  Bet  Yehudah  was  the  reverse.  The  impetus 
came  from  without  the  Jewish  camp.  The  book 
represents  the  author’s  views  on  certain  Jewish 
problems  propounded  by  his  Christian  friend, 
Prince  Emanuel  Lieven,  just  as  Mendelssohn’s 
Jerusalem  was  written  at  the  instigation  of  Lavater. 
Though  there  is  a  similarity  in  the  causes  that  pro¬ 
duced  the  two  books,  there  is  a  marked  difference 
in  their  methods.  Mendelssohn  treats  his  subject 
as  an  impartial  non-Jewish  philosopher  might  have 
done.  He  is  frequently  too  reserved,  for  fear  of 
offending.  Levinsohn,  in  Greek-Catholic  Russia, 

209 


14 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

is  strictly  frank.  He  is  conscious  of  the  difficulties 
under  which  he  is  laboring.  To  discuss  religion  in 
Russia  is  far  from  agreeable.  “  It  is,”  he  says, 
“  as  if  a  master,  pretending  to  exhibit  his  skill  in 
racing,  were  to  enter  into  competition  publicly  with 
his  slave  .  .  .  and  at  the  same  time  wink  at  him 
to  slacken  his  speed.”  Of  one  thing  he  is  certain: 
Judaism  is  a  progressive  religion.  It  had  been 
and  might  be  reformed  from  time  to  time,  but  this 
can  and  must  be  only  along  the  lines  of  its  own 
genius.  To  improve  the  moral  and  material  con¬ 
dition  of  the  Jews  by  weaning  them  away  from 
the  faith  of  their  fathers  (as  was  tried  by  Nich¬ 
olas)  will  not  do.  On  the  contrary,  make  them 
better  Jews,  and  they  will  be  better  citizens. 

The  Bet  Yehudah  may  justly  be  called  the  con¬ 
necting  link  between  the  Teudah f  which  preceded 
it,  and  Zerubbabel,  which  followed  it.  The  latter, 
though  written  in  Hebrew,  was  really  intended  ex¬ 
clusively  for  the  Gentile  world,  as  the  former  had 
been  mainly  for  the  Jewish  world.  It  is  a  continua¬ 
tion,  but  not  yet  a  conclusion,  of  the  self-assigned 
task  of  Levinsohn.  The  Talmud,  we  have  seen, 
was  at  that  time  the  object  of  assaults  of  zealous 
Christians  and  disloyal  Jews,  and  hostile  works 
against  Judaism  were  the  order  of  the  day.  Most 

210 


CONFLICTS  AND  CONQUESTS 

of  them,  however,  like  the  fabulous  snake,  vented 
their  poison  and  died.  It  was  different  with 
McCaul’s  poignant  diatribe  against  the  cause  of 
Judaism  and  the  honor  of  the  Talmud,  which  had 
been  translated  into  many  languages.  Montefiore, 
while  in  Russia,  urged  Levinsohn  to  defend  his 
people  against  their  traducers,  and  the  bed-ridden 
sage,  almost  blind  and  hardly  able  to  hold  a  pen, 
finally  consented.  What  Zerubbabel  accomplished, 
can  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  in  the  second 
Hebrew  edition  of  McCaul’s  Old  Paths  (1876) 
are  omitted  many  of  the  calumnies  and  aspersions 
of  the  first  edition,  published  in  1839. 

Levinsohn’s  life  was  a  continuous  struggle 
against  an  insidious  disease,  which  kept  him  con¬ 
fined  to  his  bed,  and  prevented  him  from  accepting 
any  prominent  position.  But  though,  as  he  said,  he 
had  “  neither  brother,  wife,  child,  nor  even  a  sound 
body,”  he  impressed  his  personality  upon  Russian 
Jewry  as  no  one  else,  save  the  Gaon,  had  before 
him.  His  breadth  of  view  and  his  sympathetic  dis¬ 
position  gradually  won  him  the  respect  and  love 
of  all  who  knew  him.  The  zaddikim  Abraham  of 
Turisk  and  Israel  Rasiner  were  his  lifelong  friends; 
the  Talmudist  Strashun  acknowledged  his  in¬ 
debtedness  to  him,  and  Rabbi  Abele  of  Vilna 

211 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


remarked  jestingly  that  the  only  fault  to  be  found 
with  the  Teudah  was  that  its  author  was  not  the 
Gaon  Elijah.  He  enjoyed  prominence  in  Govern¬ 
ment  circles,  and  Prince  Wittgenstein  was  passion¬ 
ately  fond  of  his  company.  Above  all  he  endeared 
himself  to  the  Maskilim.  To  him  they  looked  as 
to  their  teacher  and  guide;  him  they  consulted  in 
every  emergency.  Lebensohn  and  Gottlober,  Man- 
delstamm  and  Gordon,  equally  sought  his  criticism 
and  advice.  For  all  he  had  words  of  comfort  and 
encouragement.  The  younger  Maskilim  he  warned 
not  to  waste  their  time  in  idle  versification,  not  to 
become  intoxicated  with  their  little  learning;  and 
the  older  ones  he  implored  to  respect  the  sentiments 
of  their  conservative  coreligionists.  “  Take  it  not 
amiss,”  he  would  say  to  the  latter,  “  that  the  great 
bulk  of  our  people  hearken  not  as  yet  to  our  new 
teachings.  All  beginnings  are  difficult.  The  drop 
cannot  become  a  deluge  instantaneously.  Perse¬ 
vere  in  your  laudable  ambition,  publish  your  good 
and  readable  books,  and  the  result,  though  slow, 
is  sure.” 

Thus  lived  and  labored  the  first  of  the  Maskilim, 
an  idealist  from  beginning  to  end.  Persecution  did 
not  embitter,  nor  poverty  depress  him.  And  when 
he  passed  away  quietly  (February  12,  i860)  in  the 

212 


CONFLICTS  AND  CONQUESTS 


obscure  little  town  in  which  he  had  been  born,  and 
which  has  become  famous  through  him,  it  was  felt 
that  Russia  had  had  her  Mendelssohn,  too.  Strange 
to  say,  he  little  suspected  the  tremendous  influence 
he  exerted  upon  the  Haskalah  movement,  but  was 
quite  sanguine  of  the  success  of  his  fight  for  “  truth 
and  justice  among  the  nations.”  His  work  he  mod¬ 
estly  summed  up  in  the  epitaph  which  was  inscribed 
on  his  tombstone  at  his  request : 

Out  of  nothing  God  called  me  to  life. 

Alas,  earthly  life  has  passed,  and  I  must 
Sleep  again  on  the  bosom  of  Mother  Nature. 

Witness  this  stone.  I  fought  with  God’s 
Foes,  not  with  a  Sword,  but  with  the  Word; 

I  fought  for  Truth  and  Justice  among  the  Nations 
And  Zerubbabel  and  Efes  Dammim  testify  thereto. 

Contemporaneous  with  Isaac  Bar  Levinsohn, 
and  hardly  less  distinguished  and  influential,  was 
Mordecai  Aaron  Giinzburg  (ReMAG,  Salanti, 
Kovno,  December  3,  179 5 — Vilna,  November  5, 
1846).  His  family  had  been  prominent  in  many 
walks  of  life  since  the  fourteenth  century,  and, 
whether  in  the  land  of  the  Saxons  or  of  the  Slavs, 
represented  the  cream  of  the  Jewries  in  which  they 
lived.  His  father  was  a  Mask'd  of  great  repute, 
who  had  written  several  treatises,  in  Hebrew,  on 


213 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

algebra,  geometry,  optics,  and  kindred  subjects.  He 
sought  to  supplement  his  son  Mordecai  Aaron’s 
heder  education  with  a  knowedge  of  secular  sciences. 
But  at  that  time  and  in  that  place  not  many  were 
the  books,  outside  the  Talmud,  accessible  to  a  lad 
eager  for  learning,  the  only  ones  available  being 
such  as  the  Josippon t  Zemah  David }  and  Sheerit 
Yisrael  on  Jewish  History,  the  Sefer  ha-Berit,  and 
a  Hebrew  translation  of  Mendelssohn’s  Phaedon 
on  general  philosophy.  But  the  precocious  and 
clear-minded  youth  did  not  need  much  to  stimulate 
his  love  for  history  and  his  inclination  to  phil¬ 
osophy,  and  his  intellectual  development  continued 
in  spite  of  the  untoward  circumstances  in  which  he 
happened  to  be  placed. 

Though  he  was  “  given  ”  in  marriage  at  a  very 
early  age,  the  proverbial  “  millstone  ”  weighed  but 
lightly  upon  the  neck  of  young  Giinzburg.  He 
never  discontinued  the  habit  of  secluding  himself 
in  his  study  for  hours,  sometimes  for  days,  at  a  time, 
and  there  writing  down  his  thoughts  in  painstaking 
penmanship.  These  productions,  with  all  their 
crudity,  promised,  according  to  a  keen  critic,  the 
flowers  which  would  one  day  “  ripen  into  delicious 
fruit,  not  only  pleasant  to  the  sight  but  also  deli¬ 
cious  to  the  taste.”  In  fact,  even  his  religious  views 

214 


CONFLICTS  AND  CONQUESTS 


underwent  but  slight  modification  in  later  and  ma- 
turer  years.  Ceremonial  laws,  or  minhagim,  were 
to  him  a  social  compact  among  the  members  of  a 
sect.  He  who  transgresses  them  is,  eo  ipso,  ex¬ 
cluded  from  the  sect,  as  he  who  disregards  the 
social  code,  though  not  immoral,  is  ostracized  from 
society.  This  led  him  to  the  logical  conclusion  that 
every  Jew  must  comply  with  the  customs  of  his 
people,  though  his  opinion  as  to  their  moral  value 
may  differ  from  that  of  the  rest.  He  believed  in 
freedom  of  thought,  but  would  not  concede  free¬ 
dom  of  action  or  even  of  expression,  and  would  say 
with  Bolingbroke,  “  Freedom  belongs  to  a  man  as 
a  rational  creature,  he  lies  under  the  restraint  as  a 
member  of  society.” 

At  these  conclusions,  Giinzburg  arrived  only  after 
a  long,  severe,  though  silent,  struggle  in  the  seclu¬ 
sion  of  his  closet.  His  active  mind  would  not  at 
first  surrender  unconditionally  to  the  coercion  of 
custom.  But  his  conception  of  ceremonialism 
served  him  in  good  stead  on  many  an  occasion  in  his 
eventful  life.  Being  an  expedient  to  preserve  har¬ 
mony,  it  may  and  must  vary  with  change  of  con¬ 
ditions.  Accordingly,  Giinzburg  always  accommo¬ 
dated  himself  to  his  environment.  In  Vilna  he 
subscribed  to  the  regulations  of  the  Shulhan  ' Aruk , 

215 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

in  Mitau  he  quickly  and  completely  became  Ger¬ 
manized.  Such  adaptability  rendered  him  con¬ 
spicuous  wherever  he  went,  and  as  early  as  1829 
his  name  was  included  among  the  learned  of  Li¬ 
vonia,  Esthland,  and  Courland  in  the  Biographical 
Dictionary  then  published  by  Recke  and  Napyersky. 

His  claim  to  fame,  however,  consists  in  the  in¬ 
fluence  he  exerted  upon  Russian  Jews.  Like  Levin- 
sohn,  he  was  a  constructive  force.  In  his  younger 
days,  he  had  inveighed  against  the  benighted  rabbis 
and  the  antiquated  garb,  but  moderation  came  with 
discretion.  He  would  not  sweep  away  by  force 
the  accumulation  of  hundreds  of  years.  Judaism 
needed  reforms  of  some  sort,  but  these  could  not  be 
brought  about  by  the  Russo-German-doctor-rabbis, 
men  who  could  rede  the  seven  riddles  of  the  world, 
but  whose  knowledge  of  their  own  people  and  its 
spiritual  treasures  was  close  to  the  zero  point.  “  For 
a  rabbi,”  writes  he,  “  Torah  must  be  the  integer, 
science  the  cipher.  Had  Aristotle  embraced  Juda¬ 
ism,  notwithstanding  his  unparalleled  erudition,  he 
would  still  remain  a  sage,  never  become  a  rabbi.” 
But  he  was  as  little  satisfied  with  the  exclusively 
Talmudistic  rabbis.  “  O  ye  modern  rabbis,”  he 
calls  out  in  one  of  his  essays,  in  which  he  stigma¬ 
tizes  Lilienthal’s  plans  as  the  “  gourd  of  Jonah,” 

216 


CONFLICTS  AND  CONQUESTS 

“  you  who  stand  in  the  place  of  seer  and  prophet 
of  yore,  is  it  not  your  duty  to  rise  above  the  people, 
to  intervene  between  them  and  the  Government? 
And  how  can  you  expect  to  accomplish  it,  if  the  lan¬ 
guage  and  regulations  of  our  country  are  entirely 
unknown  to  you?  ” 

The  impress  Giinzburg  left  upon  Hebrew  litera¬ 
ture  is  of  special  importance.  Until  his  time,  de¬ 
spite  the  examples  set  by  Satanov  and  Levin,  He¬ 
brew  was  stamped  with  the  hallmark  of  medieval¬ 
ism.  Like  the  Spanish  entertainment  in  Dryden’s 
Mock  Astrologer ,  at  which  everything  at  the  table 
tasted  of  nothing  but  red  pepper,  so  the  literature 
of  that  day  was  dominated  by  the  style  and  spirit  of 
the  Talmud  and  saturated  with  its  subtleties.  As¬ 
tronomy,  philosophy,  mathematics,  and  poetry 
swarmed  with  puns,  alliterations,  pedantic  allu¬ 
sions;  they  were  overladen  with  irrelevant  notes  and 
interwoven  with  quaint  and  strained  interpretations. 
Giinzburg  was  the  first,  with  the  exception  of  Erter 
perhaps,  to  try  to  remedy  the  evil.  “  Every  writer,” 
he  maintained,  “  should  guard  himself  against  the 
fastidiousness  or  stiffness  which  results  from  ped¬ 
antry,  and  take  great  pains  not  only  with  the  con¬ 
tent  of  his  thoughts,  but  with  the  language  in  which 
these  thoughts  are  couched.”  Simplicity,  perspi- 

217 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


cuity,  and  conciseness,  these  he  taught  by  precept 
and  example,  and  though  he  was  accused  of  “  Ger¬ 
manizing  ”  the  Hebrew  language,  he  persisted  in 
his  labor  until  he  attained  the  foremost  rank 
among  the  neo-Hebraic  litterateurs. 

In  Giinzburg  we  find  the  artistic  temperament 
developed  to  a  degree  rare  among  Hebraists  of  even 
more  recent  years.  He  wrote  only  in  moments  of 
inspiration.  At  times  he  passed  weeks  and  months 
without  penning  a  line,  but  when  once  aroused  he 
wrote  unceasingly  until  he  finished  what  he  had 
begun.  He  was  careful  in  the  choice  of  his  words, 
careful  in  the  choice  of  his  books,  and  would  recom¬ 
mend  nothing  but  the  best.  “  I  may  not  have  genius 
enough,”  he  would  say,  “  to  distinguish  between 
better  and  best,  but  I  do  not  lack  common  sense,  to 
differentiate  tares  from  weeds.”  Above  all,  he  pos¬ 
sessed  a  sense  of  honor,  the  greatest  stimulus,  as 
he  maintained,  to  noble  endeavors.  “  For  as  mar¬ 
riage  is  necessary  to  perpetuate  the  race,  and  food 
to  sustain  the  individual,  so  is  honor  to  the  exist¬ 
ence  of  the  superior  man.” 

Of  the  fifty  years  of  his  active  life  more  than 
one-half  was  spent  in  literary  labor.  His  books 
obtained  a  wide  circulation,  and,  though  they  were 
rather  expensive,  became  rare  soon  after  their  pub- 

218 


CONFLICTS  AND  CONQUESTS 


lication.  Yet,  strange  to  say,  this  eminent  Hebraist 
seldom,  if  ever,  lauds  the  beauties  of  the  “  daughter 
of  Eber  ”  (Hebrew)  like  his  fellow-Maskilim  since 
the  days  of  the  Meassefim,  nor  does  he  even  think 
it  incumbent  on  a  Jew  to  be  conversant  with  it. 

Three  periods  have  passed  over  me — he  writes  to  a  friend — 
since  I  dedicated  myself  to  Hebrew.  As  a  youth  I  loved  it  as  a 
Jewish  lad  loves  his  betrothed,  not  because  he  is  enamored  of  her 
charms,  but  because  his  parents  have  chosen  her  for  him;  as  I 
grew  older,  I  continued  to  love  it  as  a  Jewish  man  loves  his 
wife,  not  because  of  real  affection,  but  because  she  is  the  only 
one  he  know7s;  now  that  I  am  old,  I  still  love  her,  as  an  elderly 
Jew  loves  his  helpmate:  he  is  aware  that  she  lacks  many  of  the 
accomplishments  of  which  more  educated  women  can  boast,  but, 
for  all  that,  remembering  her  faithfulness  in  the  past,  he  loves 
her  also  in  the  present,  and  loves  her  till  he  dies. 

Giinzburg  was  different  from  most  of  his  con¬ 
temporaries  in  another  respect.  He  was  a  volumin¬ 
ous  writer,  but  only  a  few  of  his  books  and  essays 
bear  on  what  we  now  call  Jewish  science.  Zunz, 
Geiger,  and  Jost,  seeing  that  Judaism  was  gradually 
losing  its  hold  upon  their  Jewish  countrymen,  re¬ 
sorted  to  exploring  and  narrating,  in  German,  the 
wonderful  story  of  their  race,  in  the  hope  of  renew¬ 
ing  its  ebbing  strength.  Levinsohn,  living  amid  a 
different  environment,  deemed  it  best  to  convince 

219 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

his  fellow-Jews  that  secular  knowledge  was  neces¬ 
sary,  and  religion  sanctioned  their  pursuit  thereof. 
Giinzburg,  the  man  of  letters,  determined  to  teach- 
through  the  vehicle  of  Hebrew  the  true  and  the 
beautiful  wherever  he  found  it.  He  felt  called 
upon  to  reveal  to  his  brethren  the  grandeur  of  the 
world  beyond  the  dingy  ghetto,  to  tell  them  the 
stories  not  contained  in  the  Midrash,  Josippon ,  or 
the  biographies  of  rabbis  and  zaddikim.  He  trans¬ 
lated  Campe’s  Discovery  of  the  New  World,  com¬ 
piled  a  history  of  ancient  civilization,  and  nar¬ 
rated  the  epochal  event  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
the  conflict  between  Russia  and  France.  He  taught 
his  fellow-Jews  to  think  correctly  and  logically,  to 
clothe  their  thoughts  in  beautiful  expressions,  and 
revealed  his  innermost  being  to  them  in  his  auto¬ 
biography,  A hi'ezer.  As  a  writer  he  appears  neither 
erudite  nor  profound.  We  cannot  apply  to  his 
works  what  we  may  safely  say  of  Elijah  Vilna’s 
and  Levinsohn’s,  that  “  there  is  solid  metal  enough 
in  them  to  fit  out  whole  circulating  libraries,  were 
it  beaten  into  the  usual  filigree.”  But  he  was 
elegant,  cultured,  intelligent,  honorable;  one  who 
joined  a  feeling  heart  to  a  love  for  art;  a  Moses 
who  struck  from  the  rock  of  the  Hebrew  tongue 


220 


PEREZ  BEN  MOSHEH  SMOLENSKIN 

1842-1885 


CONFLICTS  AND  CONQUESTS 

refreshing  streams  for  those  thirsting  for  knowl¬ 
edge;  a  most  amiable  personality,  and  an  alto¬ 
gether  unusual  character  during  the  century-long 
struggle  between  light  and  darkness  in  the  Jewry  of 
Russia. 

[Notes,  pp.  318-322.] 


m 


CHAPTER  V 


RUSSIFICATION,  REFORMATION,  AND 

ASSIMILATION 

1856-1S81 

The  year  1856  will  always  be  remembered  as  the 
amms  mirabilis  in  the  history  of  Russia.  It  marked 
at  once  the  cessation  of  the  Crimean  war  and  the 
accession  of  the  most  liberal  and  benevolent  mon¬ 
arch  Russia  ever  had.  On  January  16,  the  heir 
apparent  signified  his  consent  to  accept  Austrian 
intervention,  which  resulted  in  the  Treaty  of  Paris 
(March  30),  granting  the  Powers  involved  “  peace 
with  honor  and  in  August,  in  the  Cathedral  of 
the  Assumption  at  Moscow,  amidst  unprecedented 
rejoicing,  the  czarevich  placed  the  imperial  crown 
upon  his  head.  From  that  time  reform  followed 
reform.  The  condition  of  the  soldiers,  who  had 
virtually  been  slaves  under  Nicholas  I,  was  greatly 
improved,  and  a  proclamation  was  issued  for  the 
emancipation  of  the  peasants,  slaves  not  for  a 
limited  time  only,  but  for  life  and  from  generation 

222 


RUSSIFICATION,  REFORMATION,  AND  ASSIMILATION 

to  generation.  It  cost  the  United  States  five  years 
of  fratricidal  agony,  a  billion  of  dollars,  and  about 
half  a  million  of  lives,  to  liberate  five  or  six  millions 
of  negroes;  Russia,  in  one  memorable  day  (Feb¬ 
ruary  19,  1861),  liberated  nearly  twenty-two  mil¬ 
lions  of  muzhiks  (peasants),  and  gave  them  full 
freedom,  by  a  mere  stroke  of  the  pen  of  the  “  tsar 
osvobodityel,”  the  Liberator  Czar,  Alexander  II 
( 1856-1881 ). 

Other  innovations,  of  less  magnitude  but  never¬ 
theless  of  far-reaching  importance,  were  intro¬ 
duced  later.  Capital  punishment,  which  still  dis¬ 
graces  human  justice  in  more  enlightened  states, 
was  unconditionally  abolished;  the  number  of  of¬ 
fences  amenable  to  corporal  punishment  was  grad¬ 
ually  reduced,  until,  on  April  29,  1863,  all  the  hor¬ 
rors  of  the  gauntlet,  the  spur,  the  lash,  the  cat,  and 
the  brand,  were  consigned  to  eternal  oblivion.  The 
barbarous  system  of  the  judiciary  wTas  replaced  by 
one  that  could  render  justice  “  speedy,  righteous, 
merciful,  and  equitable.”  Railway  communication, 
postal  and  telegraph  service,  police  protection,  the 
improvement  of  the  existing  universities,  the  open¬ 
ing  of  many  new  primary  schools,  and  the  introduc¬ 
tion  of  compulsory  school  attendance,  told  speedily 
on  the  intellectual  development  of  the  people.  In 

228 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

the  words  of  Shumakr,  Russia  experienced  “  a  com¬ 
plete  inward  revival.”  Old  customs  seemed  to 
disappear,  all  things  were  become  new.  New  life, 
new  hope,  new  aspirations  throbbed  in  the  hearts 
of  the  subjects  of  the  gigantic  empire,  and  better 
times  were  knocking  at  their  doors.  Joli  tout  le 
monde,  le  diable  est  mort! 

This  era  of  great  reforms  and  the  resuscitation 
of  all  that  is  good  and  noble  in  the  Slavonic  soul 
brought  about  also  a  moral  regeneration.  The 
colossus  who,  according  to  Turgenief,  preferred  to 
sleep  an  endless  sleep,  with  a  jug  of  vodka  in  his 
clutched  fingers,  proved  that  he,  too,  was  human, 
with  a  feeling,  human  heart  beating  in  his  bosom. 
With  the  restoration  of  peace  and  the  abolition  of 
serfhood,  there  began  a  removal  of  prejudice  even 
against  Jews.  Hitherto  the  foremost  litterateurs  in 
Russia,  imitating  the  writers  of  other  lands,  had 
painted  the  Jew  as  a  monstrosity.  Pushkin’s  pris¬ 
oner,  Gogol’s  traitor,  Lermontoff’s  spy,  and  Tur¬ 
genief ’s  Zhid  (Jew)  were  caricatures  and  libels, 
equal  in  acrimony,  and  not  inferior  in  art,  to  Shake¬ 
speare’s  Shylock  and  Dickens’s  Fagin.  But  now  the 
best  and  ablest  men  of  letters  signed  a  protest 
against  such  unjust  and  impossible  characters. 


224 


RUSSIFICATION,  REFORMATION,  AND  ASSIMILATION 


Two  thousand  years  of  cruel  suffering  and  affliction — said  the 
historian  and  humanitarian  Professor  Granovsky,  of  the  Univer¬ 
sity  of  Moscow — have  at  last  erased  the  bloody  boundary  line 
separating  the  Jews  from  humanity.  The  honor  of  this  recon¬ 
ciliation,  which  is  becoming  firmer  from  day  to  day,  belongs  to 
our  age.  The  civic  status  of  the  Jews  is  now  established  in  most 
European  countries,  and  even  in  the  places  that  are  still  back¬ 
ward  their  condition  is  improved,  if  not  by  law,  then  by  en¬ 
lightenment. 

And  law  and  enlightenment  radiated  their  sun¬ 
shine  also  upon  the  Jews  of  rejuvenated  Russia. 
The  Cantonist  system  was  abolished  for  good;  the 
high  schools  and  universities  were  opened  to  Jews 
without  discrimination ;  and  the  Governments  lying 
outside  the  Pale  were  made  accessible  to  Jewish 
scholars,  professional  men,  manufacturers,  whole¬ 
sale  merchants,  and  skilled  laborers  (March  16, 
1859  ;  November  27,  1861  )J  Through  the  efforts 
of  Wolf  Kaplan,  one  of  Giinzburg’s  noted  pupils, 
the  persecution  of  Jews  by  Germans  in  Riga  was 
stopped,  and  the  eminent  publicist  Katkoff  under¬ 
took  to  defend  them  in  the  newspaper  Russkiya 
Vyedomosti.  Nazimov,  the  Governor-General  of 
Vilna,  Mukhlinsky,  who  inspected  the  Jewish 
schools  in  western  Russia,  Artzimovich,  of  southern 
Russia,  and  many  other  prominent  personages  arose 
as  champions  of  the  Jews.2 

225 


15 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

The  physician  and  pedagogue  Nikolai  Ivan¬ 
ovich  Pirogov  (1810-1881),  the  superintendent 
of  the  Odessa  and  Kiev  school  districts,  is  espe¬ 
cially  deserving  of  honorable  mention  in  the  history 
of  Haskalah.  Of  all  the  Russians  of  the  period 
who  gloried  in  their  liberal  convictions,  he  was  the 
most  liberal.  In  him  the  last  vestige  of  prejudice 
and  race  distinction  disappeared,  and  he  conscien¬ 
tiously  devoted  himself  to  the  study,  not  only  of  the 
present,  but  also  of  the  past  of  the  Jews,  to  be  in 
a  better  position  to  lend  them  his  assistance.  To  the 
Jews  he  appealed  to  unite  and  spread  enlightenment 
among  the  masses  by  peaceful  means.  To  the  Gen¬ 
tiles,  again,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  point  out  the  good 
qualities  of  the  Jews,  and  in  an  article  on  the  Odessa 
Talmud  Torah  he  held  up  the  institution  as  a  model 
for  the  public  elementary  schools.  He  admired 
especially  the  enthusiasm  with  which  Jewish  youths 
devoted  themselves  to  the  acquisition  of  knowledge. 
“  Where  are  religion,  morality,  enlightenment,  and 
the  modern  spirit,”  asked  he,  u  when  these  Jews, 
who,  with  courage  and  self-sacrifice,  engage  in  the 
struggle  against  prejudices  centuries  old,  meet  no 
one  here  to  sympathize  with  them  and  extend  a 
helping  hand  to  them?”  His  liberality  carried 
him  so  far  that  he  established  a  fund  for  the  support 

226 


RUSSIFICATION,  REFORMATION,  AND  ASSIMILATION 

of  indigent  Jewish  students  at  the  University  of 
Kiev,  and  he  advocated  strenuously  the  award  of 
prizes  and  scholarships  to  deserving  Jewish  stu¬ 
dents.  Such  as  he  were  rare  in  any  land,  but  no¬ 
where  so  rare  as  in  Russia.3 

Pirogov  took  the  initiative  in  reorganizing  the 
Jewish  schools.  It  required  little  observation  to 
understand  that  they  had  proved  a  failure.  Instead 
of  attracting  the  Jewish  masses  to  secular  educa¬ 
tion,  they  only  repelled  them.  The  remedy  was  not 
far  to  seek.  “  The  abolition  of  these  schools,”  said 
Count  Kotzebu,  u  would  drive  the  Jews  back  to 
their  fanaticism  and  isolation.  It  is  necessary  to 
make  the  Jews  useful  citizens,  and  I  see  no  other 
means  of  achieving  this  than  by  their  education.” 
Pirogov’s  first  move  was  to  order  that  Jewish  in¬ 
stead  of  Christian  principals  be  put  at  their  head, 
and  he  set  an  example  by  appointing  Rosenzweig  to 
that  office.  The  curriculum  was  changed,  making 
the  lower  schools  correspond  with  our  grammar 
schools,  and  adapting  their  studies  to  the  needs  of 
those  who  must  discontinue  schooling  at  a  compara¬ 
tively  early  age.  The  higher  schools  were  arranged 
so  as  to  prepare  the  pupils  for  the  gymnasium.  The 
salaries  of  the  teachers  were  raised,  and  books  and 


227 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


necessaries  were  provided  for  pupils  too  poor  to 
afford  them. 

The  Government’s  attention  having  been  directed 
by  General  Zelenoy  to  the  Jewish  agricultural  col¬ 
onies  in  southern  Russia,  Marcus  Gurovich  was  ap¬ 
pointed  to  work  out  a  plan  to  provide  them  with 
graded  schools.  He  proposed  that  secular  and 
sacred  subjects  alike  be  taught  by  Jewish  teachers, 
and  these  were  to  be  cautioned  to  be  careful  not  to 
offend  the  religious  sensibilities  of  the  parents.  The 
plan  appealed  to  the  colonists,  and  they  looked  for¬ 
ward  anxiously  to  its  fulfilment.  Having  waited 
in  vain  till  1868,  they  offered  to  defray  the  expenses 
of  the  schools  involved,  if  the  Government  would 
advance  the  money  at  the  first.  Accordingly,  ten 
schools  for  boys  and  two  for  girls  were  opened  in 
that  year. 

Such  disinterested  efforts  on  their  behalf  would 
have  evoked  the  gratitude  of  Jews  at  any  time  and 
in  every  country,  how  much  more  in  Russia,  and 
following  close  upon  the  darkest  period  in  their 
history !  The  struggle  for  liberty  all  over  Europe 
in  1848 — the  spring  of  nations — had  confirmed 
Nicholas  in  his  policy  of  exclusion.  The  last  five 
years  of  his  reign  had  surpassed  the  preceding  in 
cruelty  and  tyranny.  The  “  Don  Quixote  of  Poli- 

228 


RUSSIFICATION,  REFORMATION,  AND  ASSIMILATION 

tics,”  finding  that  his  attempts  to  quarantine  Russia 
against  European  influences  had  proved  futile,  that 
the  nationalities  constituting  the  empire  remained 
as  distinct  as  ever,  and  the  desired  homogeneity  was 
still  far  from  becoming  a  reality,  finally  had  lost 
patience  and  had  determined  to  execute  his  conver- 
sionist  policy  at  all  hazards.  He  had  increased  the 
conscription  duties,  already  unbearable  (January  8, 
1852;  August  16,  1852),  restricted  the  study  of 
Hebrew  and  Hebrew  subjects  still  further  in  the 
Government  schools,  and,  as  if  to  embitter  the  lives 
of  the  Jew  by  all  means  available,  insisted  on  the 
use  of  the  Mitnaggedic  ritual  even  in  communities 
exclusively  or  largely  Hasidic.4  Even  the  blood 
accusation  had  been  revived,  and  the  statements 
in  the  pamphlet  entitled  Information  about  the  Kill¬ 
ing  of  Christians  by  Jews  for  the  Purpose  of  Ob¬ 
taining  Their  Blood,  which  Skripitzyn,  “  the  man¬ 
ager  of  Jewish  affairs  in  Russia,”  published  in  1 844, 
found  many  believers  in  Government  circles,  and 
caused  the  Saratoff  affair  which,  though  suppressed, 
ruined  numerous  Jewish  families,  and  made  the 
breach  between  Jew  and  Gentile  wider  than  ever.® 
Now  all  this  was  changed.  Christians  cham¬ 
pioned  the  cause  of  Jews.  The  Government,  too, 
appeared  to  be  sincerely  anxious  for  the  welfare  of 

229 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

its  Jewish  subjects.  It  not  only  promised,  but  fre¬ 
quently  also  performed.  The  Jews  were  allowed  to 
follow  their  religious  predilections  unhindered.  The 
schools  were  reorganized  with  rabbinical  graduates 
as  their  teachers  and  principals.  The  Rabbinical  As¬ 
sembly,  which,  though  established  by  Nicholas  ( May 
2 6, 1 848 )  ,had  rarely  been  called  together,  was  sum¬ 
moned  to  St.  Petersburg,  and  there  spent  six  months 
in  1857  and  five  in  1861  in  deliberating  on  means 
of  improving  the  intellectual  and  material  stand¬ 
ing  of  the  Jews.  The  “  learned  Jew  ”  (uchony 
Yevrey)  Moses  Berlin  was  invited  to  become  an 
adviser  in  the  Department  of  Public  Worship 
(1856),  to  be  consulted  concerning  the  Jewish  re¬ 
ligion  whenever  occasion  required.  Permission  was 
granted  to  publish  Jewish  periodicals  in  Russian, 
Polish,  Hebrew,  and  Yiddish  (i860),  and  on  April 
26,  1862,  the  restriction  was  removed  that  limited 
Jewish  publishing  houses  and  printing-presses  to 
Vilna  and  Zhitomir.  The  Russia  Montefiore  saw 
on  his  visit  in  1872,  how  different  from  the  Russia 
he  had  left  in  1846  ! 

These  auspicious  signs  renewed  the  hope  of  the 
Maskilim  and  intensified  their  zeal.  They  were 
convinced  of  the  noble  intentions  of  the  Liberator 
Czar;  they  were  confident  that  the  emperor  who 

230 


RUSSIFICATION,  REFORMATION,  AND  ASSIMILATION 

emancipated  the  muzhiks,  and  expunged  many  a 
kromye  Yevreyev  (“  except  the  Jews  ”)  which  his 
father  was  wont  to  add  to  the  few  privileges  he 
granted  his  Christian  subjects,  would  ultimately 
remove  the  civil  disabilities  of  the  Jews  altogether. 
In  a  very  popular  song,  written  by  Eliakum  Zunser 
(Vilna,  1 836-New  York,  19 13 ),  then  a  rising  and 
beloved  Badhan  (bard)  writing  in  Yiddish  and  He¬ 
brew,  Alexander  II  was  likened  to  an  angel  of  God 
who  finds  the  flower  of  Judah  soiled  by  dirt  and 
trampled  in  the  dust.  He  rescues  it,  and  revives  it 
with  living  water,  and  plants  it  in  his  garden,  where 
it  flourishes  once  more.6  The  poets  hailed  him  as 
the  savior  and  redeemer  of  Israel.  All  that  the 
Jews  needed  was  to  make  themselves  deserving  of 
his  kindness,  and  worthy  of  the  citizenship  they  saw 
in  store  for  them.  In  Russian,  in  Hebrew,  and  in 
Yiddish,  in  prose  and  in  poetry,  the  one  theme 
uppermost  in  the  mind  of  all  was  enlightenment, 
or  rather  Russification.  From  all  quarters  the 
reveille  was  sounded.  Abraham  Bar  Gottlober 
(1811-1899)  exclaimed: 

Awake,  Israel,  and,  Judah,  arise! 

Shake  off  the  dust,  open  wide  thine  eyes! 

Justice  sprouteth,  righteousness  is  here, 

Thy  sin  is  forgot,  thou  hast  naught  to  fear.7 

231 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

More  impressively  still  Judah  Lob  Gordon 
( 1 83 1-1892 )  called : 

Arise,  my  people,  ’tis  time  for  waking! 

Lo,  the  night  is  o’er,  the  day  is  breaking! 

Arise  and  see  where’er  thou  turn’st  thy  face, 

How  changed  are  both  our  time  and  place.5 

And  in  Yiddish,  too,  an  anonymous  poet  echoed 
the  strain : 

Arise,  my  people,  awake  from  thy  dreaming, 

In  foolishness  be  not  immersed ! 

Clear  is  the  sky,  brightly  the  sun  is  beaming; 

The  clouds  are  now  utterly  dispersed ! 

Rapid  growth  is  sometimes  the  cause  of  disease, 
and  sudden  changes  the  cause  of  disappointment. 
This  was  true  of  the  swrift  progress  of  Haskalah 
during  the  reign  of  Alexander  II.  To  comprehend 
fully  the  tragedies  that  took  place  frequently  at  that 
time,  the  disillusionments  that  embittered  the  lives 
of  many  of  the  Maskilim,  the  breaking  up  of  homes 
and  bruising  of  hearts,  one  should  read  Youthful 
Sins  (Hat tot  Neurim,  1876)  by  Moses  Lob  Lilien- 
blum.  The  author  lays  bare  a  heart  ulcerated  and 
mangled  by  an  obsolete  education,  a  meaningless 
existence,  and  a  forlorn  hope.  The  hero  of  this 
little  work,  masterly  less  by  reason  of  its  artistic 

232 


RUSSIFICATION,  REFORMATION,  AND  ASSIMILATION 

finish  than  the  earnestness  that  pervades  it  from 
beginning  to  end,  is  “  one  of  the  slain  of  the 
Babylonian  Talmud,  whose  spiritual  life  is  arti¬ 
ficially  maintained  by  a  literature  itself  dead.” 
His  diary  and  letters  grant  a  glimpse  into  his  inner¬ 
most  being;  his  childhood  wasted  in  a  method¬ 
less  acquisition  of  futile  learning;  his  boyhood 
blighted  by  a  union  with  a  wife  chosen  for  him 
by  his  parents;  his  manhood  mortified  by  the  real¬ 
ization  that  in  a  world  thrilling  with  life  and  activity 
he  led  the  existence  of  an  Egyptian  mummy.  Im¬ 
patient  to  save  the  few  years  allotted  to  him  on 
earth,  and  undeterred  by  the  entreaties  and  the 
threats  of  his  wife,  he  leaves  for  Odessa,  the  Mecca 
of  the  Maskilim,  and  begins  to  prepare  himself  for 
admission  into  the  gymnasium.  “  While  there  is 
a  drop  of  blood  in  my  veins,”  he  writes  to  his  for¬ 
saken  wife,  “  I  shall  try  to  finish  my  course  of 
studies.  Though  the  physicians  declare  that  con¬ 
sumption  and  death  must  be  the  inevitable  conse¬ 
quence  of  such  application,  I  will  not  desist.  I  will 
rather  die  like  a  man  than  live  like  a  dog.”  And 
on  and  on  he  plods  over  his  Latin,  his  French,  his 
history,  geography,  and  grammar.  Two  more 
years  and  the  university  will  be  opened  to  him,  and 
he  will  read  law,  and  defend  the  honor  of  his 

233 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

people.  But  in  the  midst  of  his  ceaseless  toil  the 
spectre  of  his  simple  wife  and  his  former  innocent 
life  appears  before  him  and  “  will  not  down.”  Is 
Haskalah  worth  the  sacrifices  he  and  his  like  are 
daily  bringing  on  its  altar?  Is  not  the  material¬ 
ism  of  the  emancipated  Maskilim  often  greater  than 
the  medievalism  of  the  fanatical  Hasidim?  In 
his  native  town,  gloomy  as  it  was,  there  was  at  least 
the  glow  of  sincerity.  Haskalah  had  to  be  snatched 
by  stealth,  but  it  was  sweeter  because  thus  snatched. 
In  Odessa,  where  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of  knowledge 
could  be  obtained  for  the  asking,  it  turned  into  the 
apples  of  Sodom.  The  “  lishmah  ”  ideal,  the  love 
of  culture  for  its  own  sake,  yielded  to  the  greed 
which  changes  everything  into  a  commodity  to 
profit  by.  Yet,  since  life  demands  it,  what  a  pity 
that  his  early  training  had  incapacitated  him  from 
following  the  beaten  path !  He  concludes  his  self¬ 
indictment  thus,  “  I  have  taken  an  inventory  of  the 
business  of  my  life,  and  I  am  heartbroken,  because 
I  find  that  in  striking  the  balance  there  remains  on 
the  credit  side  only  a  cipher!  ” 

But  the  tide  of  Haskalah  was  not  to  be  stemmed. 
The  “  blessed  heritage  of  noble  passion,”  the  burn¬ 
ing  desire  for  enlightenment  and  improvement  as¬ 
serted  itself  at  all  hazards.  The  note  of  despair 

284 


RUSSIFICATION,  REFORMATION,  AND  ASSIMILATION 

was  lost  in  the  call  for  action.  Odessa  continued  to 
be  in  the  forefront.  There  technical  institutes  for 
boys  and  girls  were  established  in  addition  to  the 
previously  existing  public  schools.  A  society  by  the 
name  of  Trud  (Labor)  was  organized  (October 
ii,  1864),  for  the  purpose  of  teaching  useful 
trades.  Its  school  has  ever  since  been  the  crown 
of  the  institutions  of  the  sort.  It  was  provided  with 
the  most  modern  improvements,  a  workshop  for 
mechanics  and  an  iron  foundry,  and  it  offered  a 
post-graduate  course.  A  similar  trade  school  (re- 
meslenoye  uchilishche)  had  been  in  existence  since 
May  1, 1 862,  in  Zhitomir,  where, besides  geometry, 
mechanics,  chemistry,  physics,  etc.,  instruction  was 
given  in  carpentry,  turning,  tin,  copper,  and  black¬ 
smith  work.®  Through  the  efforts  of  Rabbi  Solo¬ 
mon  Zalkind  Minor  a  Sabbath  School  and  a  Night 
School  for  artisans  were  opened  in  Minsk  (1861), 
and  a  reference  and  circulating  library  for  the  gen¬ 
eral  public  (1863),  and  similar  educational  institu¬ 
tions  were  soon  called  into  existence  in  many  other 
cities. 

Those  were  the  days  of  organizing  and  consoli¬ 
dating  among  Jews  and  Gentiles  alike.  At  the  time 
when  Abraham  Lincoln  was  proclaiming  his  famous 
“  United  we  stand,  divided  we  fall,”  Julius  Slo- 

235 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


vacki  in  Poland  pleaded  the  cause  of  the  peasantry 
of  his  country,  and  the  Alliance  Israelite  Univer- 
selle  issued  a  call  to  the  entire  house  of  Israel  “  to 
defend  the  honor  of  the  Jewish  name  wherever  it 
is  attacked;  to  encourage,  by  all  means  at  our  dis¬ 
posal,  the  pursuit  of  useful  handicrafts;  to  com¬ 
bat,  where  necessary,  the  ignorance  and  vice  engen¬ 
dered  by  oppression;  to  work,  by  the  power  of 
persuasion  and  by  all  the  moral  influences  at  our 
command,  for  the  emancipation  of  our  brethren 
who  still  suffer  under  the  burden  of  exceptional 
legislation;  to  hasten  and  solidify  complete  en¬ 
franchisement  by  the  intellectual  and  moral  regen¬ 
eration  of  our  brethren.”  A  powerful  movement 
for  the  upliftment  of  the  masses  was  also  taking 
hold  of  the  educated  classes  among  the  Russians. 
Professor  Kostomarov  started  a  systematic  cam¬ 
paign  for  the  education  of  the  common  people.  A 
species  of  philanthropic  intoxication  seized  upon 
the  more  enlightened  Russian  youth.  A  society  of 
Narodniki,  or  Common  People,  so-called,  was  or¬ 
ganized.  Young  men  and  women  renounced  high 
rank,  and  students  came  out  of  their  seclusion  and 
joined  the  people,  dressed  in  their  garb,  spoke  their 
dialect,  led  their  life,  and,  having  won  their  con¬ 
fidence,  gradually  opened  their  minds  to  value  the 

236 


RUSSIFICATION,  REFORMATION,  AND  ASSIMILATION 

blessings  of  education,  and  their  hearts  to  desire 
them.  These  examples  from  within  and  without 
resulted  in  a  similar  attempt  among  the  Russian 
Jews.  An  organization  was  perfected  (December, 
1863)  which  exercised  a  great  civilizing  influence 
for  almost  half  a  century,  the  Society  for  the  Pro¬ 
motion  of  Haskalah  among  the  Jews  of  Russia. 

To  the  credit  of  the  Jewish  financiers  be  it  said 
that  they  were  always  the  banner  bearers  of  enlight¬ 
enment.  It  had  been  so  with  German  Aufklarung, 
when  Ben-David,  Itzig,  Friedlander,  and  Jacob¬ 
son,  laid  the  corner-stone  of  the  intellectual  rebirth 
of  their  people.  It  was  more  especially  so  in  Russia 
during  the  “  sixties.”  Odessa  was  the  most  en¬ 
lightened,  because  it  was  the  wealthiest,  of  Jewish 
communities,  as  the  benumbing  poverty  of  the  Pale 
was  largely  to  blame  for  the  unfriendly  attitude 
towards  whatever  did  not  bear  the  stamp  of  Jewish¬ 
ness  on  its  surface.  The  Society  for  the  Promotion 
of  Haskalah,  too,  owes  its  existence  to  some  of  the 
most  prominent  Russo-Jewish  merchants.  Its  orig¬ 
inal  officers  were  Joseph  Yosel  Giinzburg,  Presi¬ 
dent;  his  son  Horace  Giinzburg,  First  Vice-presi¬ 
dent;  Rabbi  A.  Neuman,  Second  Vice-president; 
the  Brodskys,  and,  the  most  active  of  them  all,  its 
Secretary,  Leon  Rosenthal  (1817-1887).  Busy 

237 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

as  he  was  with  his  financial  affairs,  Rosenthal  de¬ 
voted  considerable  time  to  the  propagation  of  en¬ 
lightenment  among  his  coreligionists.  Many  a 
youthful  Maskil  was  indebted  to  him  for  material 
as  well  as  moral  support,  and  it  was  due  to  him  that 
Osip  Rabinovich  finally  succeeded  in  publishing  the 
Razsvyet  (Dawn,  i860),  the  first  journal  in  Rus¬ 
sian  devoted  to  Jewish  interests. 

The  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Enlightenment 
was  not  unlike  the  Alliance  Israelite  Universelle, 
only  on  a  smaller  scale.  Its  object  was  “  to  spread 
the  knowledge  of  the  Russian  language  among  the 
Jews,  to  publish  and  assist  others  in  publishing,  in 
Russian  as  well  as  in  Hebrew,  useful  works  and 
journals,  to  aid  in  carrying  out  the  purposes  of  the 
Society,  and,  further,  to  assist  the  young  in  devoting 
themselves  to  the  pursuit  of  science  and  knowl¬ 
edge.”  For  several  years,  owing  to  the  indifference 
of  the  public,  it  had  a  hard  struggle  to  live  up  to  its 
ideal.  But  continuously,  if  slowly,  it  gained  in  mem¬ 
bership,  so  that  in  1884  it  had  an  affiliation  of  545. 
During  the  first  twenty  years  of  its  existence  its 
income  amounted  to  338,685  rubles,  its  expendi¬ 
tures  to  309,998  rubles.  In  1880  it  endowed  an 
agricultural  college  for  Jewish  boys.  When,  in  the 
same  year,  medical  schools  for  women  were  opened, 

238 


RUSSIFICATION,  REFORMATION,  AND  ASSIMILATION 


and  Jewish  girls  in  large  numbers  took  up  the  study 
of  medicine,  the  Society  set  aside  the  sum  of  18,900 
rubles  for  the  support  of  the  needy  among  them. 
Many  a  young  man  was  aided  in  the  pursuit  of  his 
chosen  career  by  the  Society.  It  directed  its  activi¬ 
ties  principally  to  the  younger  generation,  yet  it  did 
not  neglect  the  older.  With  its  assistance  Sabbath 
Schools  and  Evening  Schools  wrere  opened  in  Berdi- 
chev,  Zhitomir,  Poltava,  and  other  cities;  libraries 
were  founded;  interesting  Hebrew  books  on  scien¬ 
tific  subjects  were  published.  Thus  it  had  a  two¬ 
fold  object:  in  those  who  were  drifting  away  it 
aimed  to  reawaken  knowledge  or  love  of  Judaism 
by  translating  some  of  the  most  important  Jewish 
books  into  Russian  (the  Haggadah,  in  1871,  the 
prayer  book,  Pentateuch,  and  Psalms,  in  1872)  as 
well  as  text-books  and  catechisms;  and  it  popular¬ 
ized  science  among  those  who  would  not  or  could 
not  read  on  such  topics  in  Russian  or  other  living 
tongues.  In  both  directions  it  was  a  power  for  good 
among  the  Jews  of  Russia.10 

These  united  efforts  of  the  Government,  the  Mas- 
kilim,  and  the  Jewish  financiers  produced  an  effect 
the  like  of  which  had  perhaps  been  witnessed  only 
during  the  Hellenistic  craze,  in  the  period  of  the 
second  commonwealth  of  Judea.  Russian  Jewry 

239 


# 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

began  to  “  progress  ”  as  never  before.  In  almost 
all  the  large  cities,  particularly  in  Odessa,  St. 
Petersburg,  and  Moscow,  the  jews  were  fast  be¬ 
coming  Russified.  Heretofore  cooped  up,  choking 
each  other  in  the  Pale  as  in  a  Black  Hole,  they  were 
now  wild  with  an  excessive  desire  for  Russification. 
What  Maimon  said  of  a  few,  could  now  be  applied 
to  hundreds  and  thousands,  they  were  “  like  starv¬ 
ing  persons  suddenly  treated  to  a  delicious  meal.” 
They  flocked  to  the  institutions  of  learning  in  num¬ 
bers  far  exceeding  their  due  proportion.  They 
were  among  the  reporters,  contributors,  and  edi¬ 
torial  writers  of  some  of  the  most  influential  Rus¬ 
sian  journals.  They  entered  the  professions,  and 
distinguished  themselves  in  art.11 

The  ambition  of  the  wealthy  was  no  longer  to 
have  a  son-in-law  who  was  well-versed  in  the  Torah, 
but  a  graduate  from  a  university,  the  possessor  of 
a  diploma,  the  wearer  of  a  uniform.  The  bahur 
lost  his  lustre  in  the  presence  of  the  “  gymnasiast.” 
This  ambition  pervaded  more  or  less  all  classes  of 
Russo-Jewish  society.  A  decade  or  two  before,  es¬ 
pecially  in  the  “  forties,”  orthodoxy  had  been  as 
uncompromising  as  it  was  unenlightened.  “  To 
carry  a  handkerchief  on  the  Sabbath,”  as  Zunser 
says,  “  to  read  a  pamphlet  of  the  ‘  new  Haskalah,’ 

240 


RUSSIFICATION,  REFORMATION,  AND  ASSIMILATION 


or  commit  some  other  transgression  of  the  sort,  was 
sufficient  to  stamp  one  an  apikoros  (heretic).”  12  Reb 
Israel  Salanter,  when  he  learned  that  his  son  had 
gone  to  Berlin  to  study  medicine,  removed  his 
shoes,  and  sat  down  on  the  ground  to  observe  shivah 
(seven  days  of  mourning).  When  Mattes  der 
Sheinker  (saloon-keeper)  discovered  that  his  boy 
Motke  (later  famous  as  Mark  Antokolsky)  had 
been  playing  truant  from  the  heder,  and  had  hidden 
himself  in  the  garret  to  carve  figures,  he  beat  him 
unmercifully,  because  he  had  broken  the  second 
commandment.  This  was  greatly  altered  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  u  seventies.”  Jacob  Prelooker 
has  a  different  story  to  tell. 

A  remarkable  change — he  says13 — had  taken  place  in  the  minds 
of  my  parents  since  I  had  overcome  all  difficulties  and  become  a 
student  of  a  royal  college.  Not  only  were  they  reconciled  to  me, 
but  they  were  distinctly  proud  of  me.  Old  Rabbi  Abraham  now 
delighted  in  conversation  and  discussion  with  his  grandson,  who 
seemed  to  him  almost  like  an  inhabitant  of  another  world,  of  the 
terra  incognita  of  modern  knowledge  and  science.  In  the  town 
inhabited  chiefly  by  Jews  the  very  appearance  of  the  rabbi’s 
grandson  in  the  uniform  of  a  royal  college  created  an  immense 
sensation,  and  I  became  naturally  the  hero  of  the  day.  The 
older  generation  lamented  that  now  an  end  would  be  put  to  the 
very  existence  of  Israel  and  the  sacred  synagogue,  while  the 

1 6  241 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

younger  people  envied  me  and  were  inspired  to  follow  my 
example. 

Such  scenes  occurred  not  only  in  Pinsk,  but,  not 
infrequently,  in  other  towns  of  the  Pale  as  well. 

The  striving  for  intellectual  enlightenment  mani¬ 
fested  itself  in  the  refining  of  religious  customs. 
Though  Russian  Jewry  “  has  never  experienced 
any  of  the  ritualistic  struggles  that  Germany  has 
witnessed,”  14  yet  reform  and  Haskalah  always  went 
hand  in  hand.  The  attacks  on  tradition  by  the  Mas- 
kilim  of  the  “  forties  ”  and  the  early  “  fifties  ”  were 
mild  and  guarded  compared  with  the  assaults  by 
the  generation  that  followed.  With  the  appear¬ 
ance  of  the  periodicals  the  combat  was  intensified. 
Ha-Meliz,  and,  later,  Ha-Shahar  in  Hebrew,  and 
Kol  Mebasser  in  Yiddish  were  the  organs  of  those 
who  were  dissatisfied  with  the  old,  and  sought  to 
introduce  the  new.  It  was  in  the  latter  that  Dos 
Polische  Yingel  ( The  Polish  Boy),  by  Linetzky, 
first  appeared,  and  it  proved  so  popular  that  the 
editor  published  it  in  book  form  long  before  it  was 
finished  in  the  periodical.  In  an  article  on  The 
Ways  of  the  Talmud ,  by  Moses  Lob  Lilienblum, 
the  prevailing  Jewish  religious  observances  were 
vehemently  attacked.  This  was  followed  by  an- 


RUSSIFICATION,  REFORMATION,  AND  ASSIMILATION 

other  article  from  the  pen  of  Gordon,  Wisdom  for 
Those  Who  Wander  in  Spirit ,  with  suggestions  for 
adapting  religion  to  the  needs  of  the  times,  and  a 
still  more  powerful  one,  The  Chaotic  World ,  by 
Smolenskin.  The  muse  ceased  to  content  herself 
with  “  flame-songs  that  burn  their  pathway  ”  to  the 
heart.  She  preferred  to  appeal  to  the  head.  She 
no  longer  tried 

In  strains  as  sweet 

As  angels  use  ...  to  whisper  peace. 

In  cutting  criticisms  and  biting  satires  she  exposed 
time-honored  but  time-worn  beliefs  and  practices. 
Gordon  was  a  militant  reformer  in  his  younger 
days,  and  so  were  Menahem  Mendel  Dolitzky  and 
the  lesser  poets  of  the  period.  Needless  to  say,  the 
Jewish-Russian  press  was  an  enemy  of  ultra-ortho¬ 
doxy.  Osip  Rabinovich,  the  leading  Russo-Jewish 
journalist,  made  his  debut  with  an  article  in  which 
he  denounced  the  superstitious  customs  of  his  people 
in  unmeasured  terms.15  The  motto  chosen  for  the 
Razsvyet  (i860)  was  “Let  there  be  light,”  and 
the  platform  it  adopted  was  to  elevate  the  masses  by 
teaching  them  to  lead  the  life  of  all  nations,  partici¬ 
pate  in  their  civilization  and  progress,  and  preserve, 


243 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


Increase,  and  improve  the  national  heritage  of 
Israel.1" 

Yet  journalists  and  poets  were  outdone  by  schol¬ 
ars  and  novelists  in  the  battle  for  reform.  Leben- 
sohn’s  didactic  drama  Emet  we-Emunah  (  Truth  and 
Faith ,  Vilna,  1867,  1870),  in  which  he  attempts 
to  reconcile  true  religion  with  the  teachings  of 
science,  was  mild  compared  with  Dos  Polische  Yin- 
gel  or  Shatzkes’  radical  interpretations  of  the 
stories  of  the  rabbis  in  his  Ha-Mafteah  (  The  Key, 
Warsaw,  1866-1869),  and  both  were  surpassed  by 
Raphael  Kohn’s  clever  little  work  Hut  ha-M eshul- 
lash  ( The  Triple  Cord,  Odessa,  1874),  in  which 
many  prohibited  things  are  ingeniously  proved  per¬ 
missible  according  to  the  Talmud.  But  the  most 
outspoken  advocate  of  reform  was  Abraham  Mapu 
(1808-1867),  author  of  the  first  realistic  novel,  or 
novel  of  any  kind,  in  Hebrew  literature,  the  ' Ayit 
Zahud  (  The  Painted  Vulture).  His  Rabbi  Zadok, 
the  miracle-worker,  who  exploits  superstition  for 
his  own  aggrandizement;  Rabbi  Gaddiel,  the  honest 
but  mistaken  henchman  of  Rabbi  Zadok;  Ga'al,  the 
parvenu,  who  seeks  to  obliterate  an  unsavory  past  by 
fawning  upon  both;  the  Shadkan,  or  marriage- 
broker,  who  pretends  to  be  the  ambassador  of 
Heaven,  to  unite  men  and  women  on  earth, — in 


RUSSIFICATION,  REFORMATION,  AND  ASSIMILATION 

these  and  similar  types  drawn  from  life  and  de¬ 
picted  vividly,  Mapu  held  up  to  the  execration  of 
the  world  the  hypocrites  who  “  do  the  deeds  of 
Zimri  and  claim  the  reward  of  Phinehas,”  whose 
outward  piety  is  often  a  cloak  for  inner  impurity, 
and  whose  ceremonialism  is  their  skin-deep  religion. 
These  characters  served  for  many  years  as  weapons 
in  the  hands  of  the  combatants  enlisted  in  the  army 
arrayed  for  “  the  struggle  between  light  and  dark¬ 
ness.” 

The  waves  of  the  Renaissance  and  the  Reforma¬ 
tion  sweeping  over  Russian  Jewry  reached  even  the 
sacred  precincts  of  the  synagogues,  the  batte  mid- 
rashim,  and  the  yeshibot.  The  Tree  of  Life  Col¬ 
lege  in  Volozhin  became  a  foster-home  of  Has- 
kalah.  The  rendezvous  of  the  brightest  Russo- 
Jewish  youths,  it  was  the  centre  in  which  grew 
science  and  culture,  and  whence  they  were  dissem¬ 
inated  far  and  wide  over  the  Pale.  Hebrew,  Ger¬ 
man,  and  Russian  were  surreptitiously  studied  and 
taught.  Buckle  and  Spencer,  Turgenief  and  Tol¬ 
stoi  were  secretly  passed  from  hand  to  hand,  and 
read  and  studied  with  avidity.  Some  students  ad¬ 
vocated  openly  the  transformation  of  the  yeshibah 
into  a  rabbinical  seminary  on  the  order  of  the  Ber¬ 
lin  Hochschule.  The  new  learning  found  an  ardent 

245 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

supporter  in  Zebi  Hirsh  Dainov,  “  the  Slutsker 
Maggid  ”  (1832-1877),  who  preached  Russifica¬ 
tion  and  Reformation  from  the  pulpits  of  the  syna¬ 
gogues,  and  whom  the  Society  for  the  Promotion  of 
Haskalah  employed  as  its  mouthpiece  among  the 
less  advanced.17  In  the  existing  reform  synagogues, 
in  Riga,  Odessa,  Warsaw,  and  Vilna,  and  even  in 
more  conservative  communities,  sermons  began  to 
be  preached  in  Russian.  Solomon  Zalkind  Minor, 
who  lectured  in  German,  acquired  a  reputation  as 
a  preacher  in  Russian  since  his  election  to  the  rab¬ 
binate  of  Minsk  ( i860) .  He  was  called  “  the  Jel- 
linek  of  Russia  ”  by  the  Maskilim.18  Aaron  Elijah 
Pumpyansky  began  to  preach  in  Russian  at  Pone- 
vezh,  in  Kovno  (1861).  Germanization  at  last 
gave  way  to  Russification.  Even  in  Odessa,  where 
German  culture  predominated  during  the  reign  of 
Nicholas  I,  it  was  found  necessary,  for  the  sake  of 
the  younger  generation,  to  elect,  as  associate  to 
the  German  Doctor  Schwabacher,  Doctor  Solomon 
Mandelkern  to  preach  in  Russian.  Similar  changes 
were  made  in  other  communities.  In  the  Polish 
provinces  the  Reformation  was  making  even  greater 
strides.  There  the  Jews,  wrhether  reform,  like 
Doctor  Marcus  Jastrow,  or  orthodox  like  Rabbi 
Berish  Meisels,  identified  themselves  with  the 

246 


RUSSIFICATION,  REFORMATION,  AND  ASSIMILATION 

Poles,  and  participated  in  their  cultural  and  politi¬ 
cal  aspirations,  which  were  frequently  antagonistic 
to  Russification.  A  society  which  called  itself  Poles 
of  the  Mosaic  Persuasion  was  organized  in  War¬ 
saw,  an  organ  of  extreme  liberalism  was  founded  in 
the  weekly  Israelita,  and,  with  the  election  of  Isaac 
Kramsztyk  to  the  rabbinate,  German  was  replaced 
(1852)  by  the  native  Polish  as  the  language  of  the 
pulpit. 

Some  champions  of  reform  did  not  rest  satisfied 
with  mere  innovations  and  improvements.  They 
went  so  far  as  to  discard  Judaism  altogether  and 
improvise  religions  of  their  own.  Moses  Rosen- 
sohn  of  Vilna  was  the  first,  in  his  works  Advice  and 
Help  (' Ezrah  we-Tushiah,  Vilna,  1870)  and  The 
Peace  of  Brothers  ( Shelom  A  him ,  ibid.),  to  sug¬ 
gest  a  way  to  cosmopolitanism  and  universalism 
through  Judaism.19  In  1879,  Jacob  Gordin  founded 
in  Yelisavetgrad  a  sort  of  ethical  culture  society 
called  Bibleitsy  (also  Dukhovnoye  Bibleyskoye 
Bratstvo,  Spiritual  Bible  Brotherhood),  which  ob¬ 
tained  a  considerable  following  among  the  work¬ 
men  of  the  section.  It  advocated  the  abolition  of 
ritual  observances,  even  prayer,  and  the  hastening 
of  the  era  of  the  brotherhood  of  man.  It  preached, 
in  the  words  of  one  of  its  leaders,  that  “  our  moral- 

247 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


itv  is  our  religion.  God,  the  acme  of  highest  reason, 
of  surest  truth,  and  of  the  most  sublime  justice, 
does  not  demand  useless  external  forms  and  cere¬ 
monies.”  20  Following  the  organization  of  the 
Bibleitsy,  and  based  on  almost  the  same  principles, 
branches  of  a  Jewish  sect,  which  called  itself  New 
Israel  (Novy  Izrail),  were  started  almost  simul¬ 
taneously  in  Odessa  and  Kishinev.  In  the  former 
city,  the  organization  was  headed  by  Jacob  Pre¬ 
looker,  in  the  latter,  by  Joseph  Rabinowitz.  Pre¬ 
looker,  who  after  graduating  from  the  seminary 
at  Zhitomir  became  a  school-master  at  Odessa, 
sought  to  bring  about  a  consolidation  between  his 
own  people  and  Russian  Dissenters  (Raskolniki: 
the  Molocans,  Stundists,  and  Dukhobortzi) .  The 
theme  of  his  book,  New  Israel,  is  a  “  reformed 
synagogue,  a  mitigation  of  the  cleavage  between 
Jew  and  Christian,  and  recognition  of  a  common 
brotherhood  in  religion.”  Rabinowitz  went  still 
further,  and  preached  on  actual  conversion  to  one 
of  the  more  liberal  forms  of  Christianity.21 

These  sects,  which  sprang  up  in  church  and  syna¬ 
gogue  during  the  latter  part  of  the  “  seventies,” 
were  the  outcome  of  political  and  social  as  well  as 
religious  unrest.  Alexander  II  fulfilled  the  expec¬ 
tation  which  the  first  years  of  his  reign  aroused  in 

248 


RUSSIFICATION,  REFORMATION,  AND  ASSIMILATION 

Jewish  hearts  no  more  than  Catherine  II  and  Alex¬ 
ander  I.  Those  who  had  hoped  for  equal  rights 
were  doomed  to  disappointment.  Most  of  the 
reforms  of  the  Liberator  Czar  proved  a  failure 
owing  to  the  antipathy  and  machinations  of  his 
untrustworthy  officials.  Russia  was  split  between 
two  diametrically  opposed  parties,  the  extreme 
radicals  and  the  extreme  reactionaries,  waging  an 
internecine  war  with  each  other.  The  former  origi¬ 
nated  with  the  young  Russians  that  had  served  in 
the  European  campaigns  during  the  Napoleonic  in¬ 
vasion,  and  who,  in  imitation  of  the  secret  organiza¬ 
tions  which  had  so  greatly  contributed  to  the  libera¬ 
tion  of  Germany,  united  to  throw  off  the  yoke  of 
autocracy  in  Russia.  These  secret  orders,  the 
Southern,  the  Northern,  the  United  Slavonian,  and 
the  Polish,  Alexander  I  had  endeavored  in  vain  to 
suppress,  and  the  drastic  measures  taken  by  Nich¬ 
olas  I  against  the  Dekabrists  (1825)  proved  of  no 
avail.  Nor  did  the  reforms  of  Alexander  II  help 
to  heal  the  breach.  On  the  contrary,  seeing  that  the 
constitution  they  expected  from  the  Liberator  Czar 
was  not  forthcoming,  and  the  democracy  they  hoped 
for  was  far  from  being  realized,  they  became  des¬ 
perate,  and  determined  to  demand  their  rights  by 
force.  The  peasants,  too,  sobering  up  from  the 

249 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

intoxication,  the  figurative  as  well  as  the  literal, 
caused  by  the  vodka  drunk  in  honor  of  their  newly- 
acquired  volyushka  (sweet  liberty) ,  discovered  that 
the  emancipation  ukase  of  the  czar  had  been  craft¬ 
ily  intercepted  by  the  bureaucrats,  and  their  dream 
of  owning  the  land  they  had  hitherto  cultivated  as 
serfs  would  never  come  true.  Russia  was  rife  with 
discontent,  and  disaffection  assumed  a  national 
range.  The  cry  was  raised  for  a  “  new  freedom.” 
A  certain  Anton  Petrov  impersonated  the  czar, 
and  gathered  around  him  ten  thousand  Russians. 
Pamphlets  entitled  Land  and  Liberty  ( Zemlya  i 
Volya)  were  spread  broadcast  among  the  masses, 
the  mind  of  the  populace  was  inflamed,  and  at¬ 
tempts  on  the  life  of  the  czar  ensued. 

The  extreme  reactionaries,  consisting  mostly  of 
nobles  who  had  become  impoverished  by  the  eman¬ 
cipation  of  the  serfs,  grasped  the  opportunity  to 
point  out  to  the  bewildered  czar  the  evil  of  his 
liberal  policy.  Slavophilism  was  rampant.  Men 
like  Turgenief,  Dostoyevsky,  and  Tolstoi,  were 
condemned  as  “  Westernists,”  or  German  sympa¬ 
thizers,  the  enemies  of  Russia.  At  the  recommen¬ 
dation  of  Princess  Helena  Petrovna,  the  czar  en¬ 
gaged  as  the  teacher  of  his  children  a  comparatively 
unknown  professor  of  history,  Pobyedonostsev,  who 

250 


RUSSIFICATION,  REFORMATION,  AND  ASSIMILATION 

later  became  the  soul  of  Russian  despotism.  This 
man,  meek  as  a  dove  and  cunning  as  a  serpent,  easily 
ingratiated  himself  with  the  czar,  and  soon  there 
began  “  a  war  upon  ideas,  a  crusade  of  ignorance.” 
“  Karakazov’s  pistol-shot,”  as  Turgenief  says, 
“  drove  back  into  the  shade  the  phantom  of  liberty, 
the  appearance  of  which  all  Russia  had  hailed  with 
acclamations.  From  that  moment  to  the  end  of 
his  life,  the  emperor  devoted  himself  to  the  un¬ 
doing  of  all  he  had  accomplished.  If  he  could  have 
cancelled  with  one  stroke  the  glorious  ukase  that 
had  proclaimed  the  emancipation  of  the  serfs,  he 
would  have  been  only  too  glad  to  disgrace  him¬ 
self.”  22 

And  again,  as  it  had  been  during  the  reign  of 
Alexander  I  after  his  acquaintance  with  Baroness 
Kriidener,  so  it  was  with  the  reign  of  Alexander  II 
after  his  acquaintance  with  Pobyedonostsev.  The 
status  of  the  Jews  constituted  the  first  indication  of 
the  ill-boding  change.  How  little  the  officials  had 
been  in  sympathy  with  the  reformatory  efforts  of 
their  czar,  even  when  the  atmosphere  had  been 
filled  with  peace  and  good-will  to  all  including  the 
Jews,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  when,  in  1863, 
through  the  efforts  of  Doctor  Schwabacher,  the 
Jewish  community  of  Odessa  applied  for  a  charter 

251 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

to  build  a  Home  for  Aged  Hebrews,  the  charter, 
though  granted  by  the  higher  authorities,  was  with¬ 
held  for  over  twenty  years  !  The  reaction  flaunted 
its  power  once  again,  and  sat  enthroned  in  Tsar- 
skoye  Syelo.  The  few  rights  the  Jews  had  enjoyed 
were  rescinded  one  by  one.  Not  satisfied  with  this, 
the  Slavophils  tried,  under  every  pretext,  to  stop 
the  progress  of  the  Jewish  people.  Every  now  and 
then  the  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Haskalah 
would  send  some  of  the  brighter  seminary  students 
to  complete  their  education  in  Breslau  or  Berlin, 
but  at  the  command  of  the  Government  this  was 
soon  discontinued.  It  was  the  intention  of  the  same 
organization,  from  its  very  incipiency,  to  have  the 
Bible  translated  under  its  auspices  into  Russian,  but 
it  took  ten  long  years  before  this  praiseworthy 
undertaking  could  be  begun,  because  of  the  ob¬ 
stacles  the  Government  placed  in  the  way  of  its 
execution.  Fortunately,  the  indomitable  courage 
of  the  Maskilim  could  not  be  subdued.  Young  men 
went,  or  were  sent,  to  Germany  to  prepare  them¬ 
selves  for  the  rabbinate  as  before;  the  Bible  and  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer,  too,  were  translated 
secretly  by  Wohl,  Gordon,  Steinberg,  and  Leon 
Mandelstamm,  and  published  in  Germany,  whence 
they  were  smuggled  into  Russia.28 

252 


RUSSIFICATION,  REFORMATION,  AND  ASSIMILATION 

More  direct  and  equally  inexplicable,  save  on  the 
ground  of  animosity  to  whatever  was  not  Slavonic, 
was  the  ukase  to  close  the  Sabbath  Schools  and  the 
Evening  Schools,  the  only  means  of  educating  the 
laboring  men  (1870).  In  1871,  the  first  of  a 
series  of  massacres  (pogromy)  took  place  in  the 
centre  of  Jewish  culture,  Odessa.  In  1872,  permis¬ 
sion  was  denied  to  the  ladies  of  that  city  to  organize 
a  society  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  trade 
schools,  to  teach  poor  Jewish  girls  handicrafts.  The 
two  rabbinical  seminaries,  of  Vilna  and  Zhitomir, 
were  closed  in  1873,  and  replaced  by  institutes  for 
teachers,  which  were  managed  in  the  spirit  that  had 
prevailed  under  Nicholas  I.  And  in  1878  the  ab¬ 
surd  blood  accusation,  against  which  four  popes, 
Innocent  IV,  Paul  III,  Gregory  X,  and  Clement 
XIV,  issued  their  bulls,  declaring  it  a  baseless  and 
wicked  superstition,  and  which  not  only  the  Polish 
kings  Boreslav  V,  Casimir  III,  Casimir  IV,  and 
Stephen  Bathory,  but  also  Alexander  I  (March  18, 
1817),  branded  as  a  diabolic  invention — that 
dreadful  accusation  which  even  the  commission 
of  Nicholas,  despite  Durnovo’s  efforts,  had  de¬ 
nounced  as  a  disgrace  and  an  abomination,  was 
revived  by  the  newspaper  Grazhdanin.  The  ghost 
of  medievalism  began  to  stalk  abroad  once  more  in 

253 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

erstwhile  enlightened  Russia  and  under  the  aegis  of 
the  Liberator  Czar. 

As  often  before  in  Jewish  history,  the  Jews 
helped  not  a  little  to  aggravate  the  untoward  con¬ 
ditions.  At  the  instigation  of  a  number  of  students 
of  the  Yeshibah  Tree  of  Life,  the  doors  of  that 
noble  institution  were  closed  (1879),  to  open  again 
after  two  years  of  untiring  efforts  on  the  part  of 
its  self-sacrificing  dean,  the  renowned  Naphtali  Zebi 
Judah  Berlin.  But  at  the  worst  this  was  the 
result  of  mistaken  zeal  for  the  cause  of  Haskalah. 
What  was  more  detrimental  was  the  disgrace 
brought  upon  the  Jewish  name  by  several  converts 
to  Christianity.  A  certain  Jacob  Brafmann,  hav¬ 
ing  proved  a  failure  in  all  he  undertook,  tried  at  the 
last  the  business  of  Christianity,  and  succeeded 
therein.  Lie  was  appointed  professor  of  Hebrew 
in  the  seminary  of  Minsk,  and  the  Holy  Synod 
charged  him  with  the  duty  of  devising  means  to 
promulgate  Christianity  among  the  Jews.  Finding 
the  times  auspicious,  he  devoted  himself  to  writing 
libellous  articles  about  his  former  coreligionists, 
and  wound  up  with  a  Book  on  the  Kahal  ( Kniga 
Kahala,  Vilna,  1869),  in  which  he  quoted  forged 
“  transactions,”  to  the  effect  that  Judaism  tolerates 
and  even  recommends  illegality  and  immorality 

254 


RUSSIFICATION,  REFORMATION,  AND  ASSIMILATION 

among  its  adherents.  In  a  conference  of  Jews  and 
Gentiles  convoked  by  Governor-General  Kaufman 
(1871),  Barit  proved  the  falsity  and  forgery  of 
Brafmann’s  documents.  But,  as  usual,  the  defence 
was  forgotten,  the  charges  remained.24  A  certain 
Lutostansky  poisoned  the  public  mind  by  caricatur¬ 
ing  the  Jews,  and  aroused  an  anti-Semitic  agitation 
among  his  countrymen.  The  consequence  was  that 
even  the  liberals  began  to  be  suspicious,  and  the 
prospect  of  better  days  was  blighted  by  the  hatred 
which  broke  out  in  fiendish  fury,  in  lightnings  and 
thunders  which  astounded  the  world  under  Alex¬ 
ander  III. 

It  was  but  natural  that  the  Jews  that  had  become 
completely  Russified  should  enlist  in  the  ranks  of 
the  extreme  liberals.  They  found  themselves  in 
every  way  as  progressive  and  patriotic  as  the  Chris¬ 
tian  Russians.  The  language  of  Russia  became 
their  language,  its  manners  and  aspirations  their 
manners  and  aspirations.  They  contributed  more 
than  any  other  nationality  to  Russifying  Odessa, 
which,  owing  to  its  great  foreign  population,  was 
known  as  the  un-Russian  city  of  Russia.  Propor¬ 
tionately  to  their  numbers,  they  promoted  the  trade 
and  industry,  the  science  and  literature  of  their 
country  more  than  the  Russians  themselves.  Yet 

255 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


the  coveted  equality  was  denied  them,  and  the 
emancipation  granted  to  the  degraded  muzhiks  was 
withheld  from  them,  because  of  a  religion  they 
hardly  professed.  They  were  like  Faust  when  he 
found  himself  tempted  but  not  satisfied  by  the  pleas¬ 
ures  of  life,  when  food  hovered  before  his  eager 
lips  while  he  begged  for  nourishment  in  vain.  The 
liberals,  on  the  other  hand,  preached  and  prac¬ 
ticed  the  doctrine  of  equal  rights  to  all.  Socialism, 
or  nihilism,  also  appealed  to  the  Jews  from  its 
idealistic  side,  for  never  did  the  Jews  cease  to  be 
democrats  and  dreamers.  In  the  schools  and  uni¬ 
versities,  which  they  were  now  permitted  to  attend, 
they  heard  the  new  teachings  and  imbibed  the  novel 
ideas. 

Those,  therefore,  who  disdained  conversion 
allied  themselves  with  the  secret  organizations. 
“  The  torrent  which  had  been  dammed  up  in  one 
channel  rushed  violently  into  another.”  A  Hebrew 
monthly,  Ha-Emet  (Truth,  Vienna,  1877),  de¬ 
voted  to  the  cause  of  communism,  was  started  by 
Aaron  Liebermann  (“Arthur  Freeman”),  in 
which,  in  the  language  of  the  oldest  and  greatest 
socialists,  the  doctrines  of  Karl  Marx  were  incul¬ 
cated  among  the  Hebrew-reading  public.  The 
more  completely  Russified  element,  took  a  leading 

256 


RUSSIFICATION,  REFORMATION,  AND  ASSIMILATION 

part  in  the  activities  of  the  Narodnaya  Volya 
(Rights  of  the  People),  propagating  socialism 
among  the  Russian  masses,  either  by  word  of  mouth 
or  as  editors  and  coworkers  in  the  “  underground  ” 
publications.  Not  a  few  went  to  Berlin,  where, 
though  opulent,  they  sought  employment  in  fac¬ 
tories,  the  better  to  disseminate  socialism  among 
the  working  classes.  Others,  like  Aaronson,  Ach- 
selrod,  Deutsch,  Horowitz,  Vilenkin,  and  Zuker- 
man,  fled  to  Switzerland,  whence,  under  the  as¬ 
sumed  names  of  Marx,  Lassalle,  Jacoby,  etc.,  or 
united  in  a  League  for  the  Emancipation  of  Labor, 
they  directed  the  socialistic  movement  in  Russia/0 
Chernichevsky’s  What  to  Do,  Gogol’s  Dead  Souls } 
Turgenief’s  Virgin  Soil  and  Fathers  and  Sons } 
the  doctrines  of  Pisarev  and  Bielinsky,  and  of 
the  other  writers  who  then  had  their  greatest 
vogue,  were  eagerly  read  and  frequently  copied 
by  Jewish  young  gymnasiasts  and  passed  on  to  their 
Christian  schoolmates.  The  revolutionary  spirit 
seized  on  men  and  women  alike.  Women  left  their 
husbands,  girls  their  devoted  parents,  and  threw 
themselves  into  the  swirl  of  nihilism  with  a  vigor 
and  self-sacrifice  almost  incredible.  When  a  squad 
of  police  came  to  disperse  the  crowd  clamoring  for 
“  land  and  liberty  ”  in  front  of  the  Kazanskaya 

257 


17 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

Church  in  St.  Petersburg,  a  Jewish  maiden  of  six¬ 
teen,  taking  the  place  of  the  leader,  inspired  her 
comrades  with  such  enthusiasm  that  the  efforts  of 
the  police  were  ineffectual.20  By  1878,  Russia  be¬ 
came  honeycombed  with  secret  societies.  It  fell 
into  spasms  of  nihilism.  One  general  after  another 
was  assassinated.  Attempts  were  made  to  wreck  the 
train  on  which  the  czar  was  travelling  (1879)  and 
blow  up  the  palace  in  which  he  resided  (1880). 
Finally,  on  March  13, 1881,  after  many  hairbreadth 
escapes,  the  carefully  laid  plans  of  the  revolutionists 
succeeded,  and  the  Liberator  Czar  was  no  more. 

Thus  was  the  deep-rooted  yearning  for  enlighten¬ 
ment  finally  let  loose,  and  the  gyves  of  tradition 
were  at  last  removed.  The  Maskilim  of  the 
“  forties  ”  and  u  fifties  ”  were  antiquated  in  the 
“  sixties  ”  and  “  seventies.”  They  began  to  see 
that  the  fears  of  the  orthodox  and  their  denuncia¬ 
tions  of  Haskalah  were  not  altogether  unfounded. 
A  young  generation  had  grown  up  who  had  never 
experienced  the  strife  and  struggles  of  the  fathers, 
and  who  lacked  the  submissive  temper  that  had 
characterized  their  ancestors.  Faster  and  farther 
they  rushed  on  their  headlong  way  to  destruction, 
while  the  parents  sat  and  wept.  When,  in  1872, 
in  Vilna,  the  police  arrested  forty  Jewish  young 

258 


1 


RUSSIFICATION,  REFORMATION,  AND  ASSIMILATION 

men  suspected  of  nihilistic  tendencies,  Governor- 
General  Patapov  “  invited  ”  the  representatives 
of  the  community  to  a  conference.  As  soon  as  they 
arrived,  Patapov  turned  on  them  in  this  wise,  “  In 
addition  to  all  other  good  qualities  which  you  Jews 
possess,  about  the  only  thing  you  need  is  to  become 
nihilists,  tool”  Amazed  and  panic-stricken,  the 
trembling  Jews  denied  the  allegation  and  protested 
their  innocence,  to  which  the  Governor-General  re¬ 
plied,  “  Your  children  are,  at  any  rate;  they  have 
become  so  through  the  bad  education  you  have  given 
them.”  “  Pardon  me,  General,”  was  the  answer  of 
“  Yankele  Kovner  ”  (Jacob  Barit) ,  who  was  one  of 
the  representatives,  “  This  is  not  quite  right.  As 
long  as  we  educated  our  children  there  were  no 
nihilists  among  us ;  but  as  soon  as  you  took  the  edu¬ 
cation  of  our  children  into  your  hands,  behold  the  re¬ 
sult.”  The  foundations  of  religion  were  under¬ 
mined.  Parental  authority  was  disregarded.  Youths 
and  maidens  were  lured  by  the  enchanting  voice  of 
the  siren  of  assimilation.  The  naive  words  which 
Turgenief  put  into  the  mouth  of  Samuel  Abraham, 
the  Lithuanian  Jew,  might  have  been,  indeed,  were, 
spoken  by  many  others  in  actual  life.  “  Our  chil¬ 
dren,”  he  complains,  “  have  no  longer  our  beliefs; 
they  do  not  say  our  prayers,  nor  have  they  your 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


beliefs;  no  more  do  they  say  your  prayers;  they 
do  not  pray  at  all,  and  they  believe  in  nothing.”  S7 
The  struggle  between  Hasidim  and  Mitnaggedim 
ended  with  the  conversionist  policy  of  Nicholas  I, 
which  united  them  against  the  Maskilim.  The 
struggle  between  these  anti-Maskilim  and  the  Mas¬ 
kilim  had  ceased  in  the  golden  days  of  Alexander  II. 
But  the  clouds  were  gathering  and  overspreading 
the  camp  of  Haskalah.  The  days  in  which  the 
seekers  after  light  united  in  one  common  aim  were 
gone.  Russification,  assimilation,  universalism,  and 
nihilism  rent  asunder  the  ties  that  held  them  to¬ 
gether.  Judah  Lob  Gordon,  the  same  poet  who, 
fifteen  years  before,  had  rejoiced  with  exceeding  joy 
“  when  Haskalah  broke  forth  like  water,”  now 
laments  over  the  effect  thereof  in  the  following 
strain : 

And  our  children,  the  coming  generation, 

From  childhood,  alas,  are  strangers  to  our  nation— 

Ah,  how  my  heart  for  them  doth  bleed ! 

Farther  and  faster  they  are  ever  drifting, 

Who  knows  how  far  they  will  be  shifting? 

Maybe  till  whence  they  can  ne’er  recede ! 

Amidst  the  disaffection,  discord,  and  dejection 
that  mark  the  latter  part  of  the  reign  of  Alexander 


2eo 


RUSSIFICATION,  REFORMATION,  AND  ASSIMILATION 

II,  one  Maskil  stands  out  pre-eminently  in  interest 
and  importance, — one  whom  assimilation  did  not 
attract  nor  reformation  mislead,  who  under  all  the 
mighty  changes  remained  loyal  to  the  ideals  ascribed 
to  the  Gaon  and  advocated  by  Levinsohn, — Perez 
ben  Mosheh  Smolenskin  (Mohilev,  February  25, 
1842-Meran,  Austria,  February  1,  1885).^ 

Smolenskin  was  endowed  with  the  ability  and 
courage  that  characterize  the  born  leader.  He  pos¬ 
sessed  an  iron  will  and  unflinching  determination, 
before  which  obstacles  had  to  yield,  and  persecution 
found  itself  powerless.  His  talent  to  grasp  and 
appreciate  the  true  and  the  beautiful  rendered  him 
the  oracle  of  the  thousands  who,  to  this  day,  are 
proud  to  call  themselves  his  disciples.  To  him  Has- 
kalah  was  not  merely  acquaintance  with  general 
culture,  or  even  its  acquisition,  ft  was  the  realiza¬ 
tion  of  one’s  individuality  as  a  Jew  and  a  man.  Gor¬ 
don’s  advice,  to  be  a  Jew  at  home  and  a  man  abroad, 
found  little  favor  in  his  estimation;  for  Haskalah 
meant  the  evolution  of  a  Jewish  man  sui  generis. 
He  equally  abhorred  the  fanaticism  of  the  benighted 
orthodox  and  the  Laodicean  lukewarmness  of  the 
advanced  Maskilim.  To  fight  and,  if  possible, 
eradicate  both,  he  undertook  the  publication  of 
The  Dawn  (Ha-Shahar,  Vienna,  1869),  a  maga- 

201 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


zine  in  which  he  declared  “  war  against  the  dark¬ 
ness  of  the  Middle  Ages  and  war  against  the  indif¬ 
ference  of  to-day !  ” 

Not  like  the  former  days  are  these  days,  he  says  in  his  fore¬ 
word  to  Ha-Shahar.  Thirty  or  twenty  years  ago  we  had  to  fight 
the  enemy  within.  Sanctimonious  fanatics  with  their  power  of 
darkness  sought  to  persecute  us,  lest  their  folly  or  knavery  be 
exposed  to  the  light  of  day.  .  .  .  Now  that  they,  who  hitherto 
have  walked  in  darkness,  are  beginning  to  discern  the  error  of 
their  ways,  lo  and  behold,  those  who  have  seen  the  light  are 
closing  their  eyes  against  it.  .  .  .  Therefore  let  them  know 
beforehand  that,  as  I  have  stretched  out  my  hand  against  those 
who,  under  the  cloak  of  holiness,  endeavor  to  exclude  enlighten¬ 
ment  from  the  house  of  Jacob,  even  so  will  I  lift  up  my  hand 
against  the  other  hypocrites  who,  under  the  pretext  of  tolerance, 
strive  to  alienate  the  children  of  Israel  from  the  heritage  of  their 
fathers ! 

That  the  salvation  of  the  Jews  lies  in  their  dis¬ 
tinctiveness,  and  that  renationalization  will  prove 
the  only  solution  of  the  Jewish  problem,  is  the  cen¬ 
tral  thought  of  Smolenskin’s  journalistic  efforts. 
Jews  are  disliked,  he  maintains,  not  because  of  their 
religious  persuasion,  nor  for  their  reputed  wealth, 
but  because  they  are  weak  and  defenceless.  What 
they  need  is  strength  and  courage,  but  these  they 
will  never  regain  save  in  a  land  of  their  own. 
Twelve  years  before  the  tornado  of  persecution 

262 


RUSSIFICATION,  REFORMATION,  AND  ASSIMILATION 

broke  out  in  Russia  he  had  predicted  it,  and  even 
welcomed  it  as  a  means  of  arousing  the  Jews  to  their 
duties  as  a  people  and  their  place  as  a  nation,  and 
that  his  conclusion  was  correct,  the  awakening  which 
followed  proved  unmistakably. 

For  Smolenskin  Jews  never  ceased  to  be  a  nation, 
and  to  him  the  Jew  who  sought  refuge  in  assimila¬ 
tion  was  nothing  less  than  a  traitor.  He  was  thus 
the  forerunner  of  Pinsker,  and  of  Herzl  a  decade 
later.  Indeed,  in  the  resurrection  of  the  national 
hope  he  was  the  first  to  remove  the  shroud.  Ac¬ 
cording  to  him,  “  the  eternal  people  ”  have  every 
characteristic  that  goes  to  make  a  nation.  Their 
common  country  is  still  Palestine,  loved  by  them 
with  all  the  fervor  of  patriotism;  their  common 
language  had  never  ceased  to  be  Hebrew;  their 
common  religion  consists  in  the  basic  principles  of 
Judaism,  in  which  they  all  agree. 

You  wish — thus  he  addresses  himself  to  the  assimilationists — 
you  wish  to  be  like  the  other  people?  So  do  I.  Be,  I  pray  you,  be 
like  them.  Search  and  find  knowledge,  avoid  and  forsake  super¬ 
stition,  above  all  be  not  ashamed  of  the  rock  whence  you  were 
hewn.  Yes,  be  like  the  other  peoples,  proud  of  your  literature, 
jealous  of  your  self-respect,  hopeful,  even  as  all  persecuted  peoples 
are  hopeful,  of  the  speedy  arrival  of  the  day  when  we,  too,  shall 
reinhabit  the  land  which  once  was,  and  still  is,  our  own. 

263 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


But  as  the  soil  of  Palestine,  however  regarded, 
is  at  present  inaccessible  to  Jews  as  a  national  entity, 
the  language  once  spoken  in  Palestine  is  so  much 
the  more  to  be  cherished  and  cultivated  by  the  exiled 
people. 

You  ask  me — he  calls  out  again — what  good  a  dead  language 
can  do  us?  I  will  tell  you.  It  confers  honor  on  us,  girds  us  with 
strength,  unites  us  into  one.  All  nations  seek  to  perpetuate  their 
names.  All  conquered  peoples  dream  of  a  day  when  they  will 
regain  their  independence.  ...  We  have  neither  monuments 
nor  a  country  at  present.  Only  one  relic  still  remains  from  the 
ruins  of  our  ancient  glory1 — the  Hebrew  language.  Those,  there¬ 
fore,  who  discard  the  Hebrew  tongue  betray  the  Hebrew  nation, 
and  are  traitors  both  to  their  race  and  their  religion. 

No  less  trenchant  and  outspoken  was  he  against 
the  serried  array  of  self-styled  “  reformers  ”  of 
Judaism.  He  could  not  forgive  the  German  rabbis 
and  Russian  Maskilim  for  presuming  to  “  dictate  ” 
to  their  coreligionists  what  to  select  and  what  to  re¬ 
ject  in  matters  religious.  iThe  whole  movement  he 
condemned  as  a  mere  imitation  of  Protestant  Chris¬ 
tianity.  To  renovate  Judaism  !  What  a  stigma  on  a 
religion  that  had  endured  through  the  ages,  and  is 
rich  in  all  that  makes  for  holiness  and  right  living! 
The  old  garment  needs  no  new  patches.  It  still 
fits  and  will  fit  “  the  eternal  people  ”  till  time  is  no 

264 


RUSSIFICATION,  REFORMATION,  AND  ASSIMILATION 

more.  Since  the  reform  movement  in  Germany 
went  back  to  the  time  of  Mendelssohn,  Smolenskin 
hurled  the  missiles  of  his  criticism  against  the  Berlin 
sage,  forgetting  that  for  more  than  half  a  century 
his  example  and  encouragement  had  served  to 
awaken  a  love  of  knowledge  in  the  hearts  of  his 
countrymen.  But  he  saw  that  in  the  home  of  Has- 
kalah,  the  Blur ,  and  the  Meassefim,  apostasy  in¬ 
creased,  Hebrew  was  almost  forgotten,  and  Juda¬ 
ism  was  declining,  and  he  blamed  the  pellucid  water 
at  the  source  of  the  stream  for  the  muddy  pool  at 
its  mouth.  Mendelssohn,  however,  lacked  no  de¬ 
fenders  among  his  Russo-Jewish  coreligionists,  and 
their  sentiments  were  voiced  by  Abraham  Bar  Gott- 
lober  in  an  opposition  periodical,  The  Light  of  Day 
(Ha-Boker  Or,  Lublin,  1876).  “Why,”  ex¬ 
claimed  the  editor,  “  were  it  not  for  him  and  his 
reforms  .  .  .  were  it  not  for  that  grand  and  noble 
personality  .  .  .  neither  you  nor  I  should  have 
been  what  we  are !  ”  It  was  only  the  sad  sincerity 
of  Smolenskin  that  mitigated  the  errors  he  had  com¬ 
mitted  in  regard  to  the  history  of  his  people  and  the 
theology  of  its  religion. 

But  the  militant  editor  of  Ha-Shahar,  who 
wielded  his  pen  like  a  halberd,  to  deal  out  blows  to 
those  of  wdiose  views  he  disapproved,  became  as  ten- 

265 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


der  as  a  father  when  he  set  out  to  write  about  the 
people.  His  love  for  the  masses  whom  he  knew  so 
well  was  almost  boundless.  Underlying  their  super¬ 
stitions,  crudities,  and  absurdities  is  the  “  prophetic 
consciousness,”  of  which  they  have  never  been  en¬ 
tirely  divested.  The  heder  is  indeed  far  from  what 
a  school  should  be,  and  the  yeshibah  is  hardly  to 
be  tolerated  in  a  civilized  community;  yet  what 
spiritual  feasts,  what  noble  endeavors,  and  what 
unselfish  devotion  are  witnessed  within  their  dingy 
walls !  Jewish  observances  are  sometimes  cumber¬ 
some  and  sometimes  incompatible  with  modern  life, 
but  what  beauty  of  holiness,  what  irresistible  in¬ 
fluences  emanate  and  radiate  from  most  of  them ! 
Under  an  uninviting  exterior  and  beneath  the  accu¬ 
mulated  drift  of  countless  generations  he  discerned 
the  precious  jewel  of  self-sacrifice  for  an  ideal.  It 
was  this  sympathy  and  broad-mindedness,  expressed 
in  his  Ha-Toeh f  his  Simhat  Hanef,  Keburat  Ha- 
mor,  Gemul  Yesharim,  and  H a-Y enishah  that  will 
ever  endear  him  to  the  Hebrew  reader. 

Such,  in  brief,  was  the  life  of  the  man  who  bore 
the  chief  part  in  framing  and  moulding  the  Has- 
kalah  of  the  “  eighties,”  which  was  devoted  to  the 
development  of  Hebrew  literature  and  the  re  juvena¬ 
tion  of  the  Hebrew  people.  Loving  the  Hebrew 


RUSSIFICATION,  REFORMATION,  AND  ASSIMILATION 

tongue  with  a  passion  surpassing  everything  else,  he 
censured  the  German  Jewish  savants  for  writing 
their  learned  works  in  the  vernacular,  and  was  on 
the  alert  to  discover  and  bring  out  new  talent  and 
win  over  the  indifferent  and  estranged.  Dreaming 
of  the  redemption  of  his  people,  he  paved  the  way 
for  the  Zionistic  movement,  which  spread  with  tre¬ 
mendous  rapidity  after  his  death.  And  his  sincerity 
and  ability  were  repaid  in  the  only  coin  the  poor 
possess — in  love  and  admiration.  Pilgrimages  were 
made,  sometimes  on  foot,  to  behold  the  editor  of 
Ha-Shahar  and  the  author  of  Ha-Toeh.  The  great¬ 
est  journalists  in  St.  Petersburg  united  in  honoring 
him  when  he  visited  the  Russian  capital  in  1 8  8 1  - 
And  when  he  was  snatched  away  in  the  midst  of 
his  usefulness,  a  victim  of  unremitting  devotion  to 
his  people,  not  only  Maskilim,  but  Mitnaggedim 
and  Hasidim  felt  that  “  a  prince  and  a  mighty  one 
had  fallen  in  Israel !  ” 

[Notes,  pp,  323-327,] 


267 


CHAPTER  VI 


THE  AWAKENING 
1881-1905 

The  reign  of  Alexander  III,  like  that  of  Nicholas 
I,  was  devoid  of  even  that  faint  glamor  of  liberalism 
which,  in  the  days  of  Alexander  I  and  Alexander  II, 
had  aroused  deceptive  hopes  of  better  times.  Dur¬ 
ing  the  thirteen  years  of  Alexander  Ill’s  autocracy 
(1881-1894)  not  a  ray  of  light  was  permitted  to 
penetrate  into  Holy  Russia.  On  May  14,  1881, 
the  manifesto  prohibiting  the  slightest  infringement 
of  the  absolute  power  of  the  czar  was  promulgated, 
to  continue  unbroken  till  the  Russo-Japanese  war. 
The  liberal  current  which  had  carried  away  his  pre¬ 
decessors  when  they  first  mounted  the  throne  was 
checked,  the  sluices  of  Slavophilism  were  opened, 
the  history  of  Russian  thinkers  became  again,  as 
Herzen  said,  “  a  long  list  of  martyrs  and  a  register 
of  convicts.” 

Nicholas  Ignatiev,  a  rabid  reactionary,  a  second 
Jeffreys,  became  chief  of  the  Ministry  of  the  In- 

268 


THE  AWAKENING 


terior;  Katkoff,  a  repentant  liberal  and  exile,  was 
appointed  the  czar’s  chief  adviser,  the  Richelieu 
behind  the  throne  ;  and  Pobyedonostsev,  whom  Tur- 
genief  called  the  “  Russian  Torquemada,”  obtained 
supremacy  over  Melikolf,  and  was  appointed  pro¬ 
curator  of  the  Holy  Synod.  With  such  as  these  at 
the  head  of  the  Russian  bureaucracy,  there  may 
have  been  some  foundations  for  the  rumor  that  an 
imperial  ukase  decreed  the  pillage  and  slaughter  of 
the  Jews,  and  the  muzhiks,  obedient  to  the  behests 
of  the  “  little  father,”  and  smarting  under  the  pain 
of  disappointment,  vented  their  venom  on  their 
Jewish  compatriots.  Before  the  new  czar  had  been 
on  his  throne  three  months,  Russia  was  drenched 
with  Jewish  blood.  There  began  saturnalia  of 
rape,  plunder,  and  murder,  the  like  of  which  had 
been  witnessed  nowhere  in  Europe.  For  half  a  year 
the  pogroms  which  began  in  Yelisavetgrad  (April 
27,  28)  swept  like  a  tornado  over  southern  Russia, 
visiting  more  than  one  hundred  and  sixty  communi¬ 
ties  with  fire  and  sword,  resulting  in  outrages  on 
women,  in  the  murder  of  old  and  young,  in  the 
ruin  of  millions  of  dollars  of  property.  The  Black 
Hundreds  of  the  nineteenth  century  put  to  shame 
the  Haidamacks  of  the  eighteenth  and  the  Cossacks 
of  the  seventeenth.  In  the  words  of  the  Bishop 

269 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


of  Canterbury  to  Sir  Moses  Montefiore,  it  looked 
“  as  if  the  enemy  of  mankind  was  let  loose  to 
destroy  the  souls  of  so  many  Christians  and  the 
bodies  of  so  many  Jewish  people.” 

But  it  would  be  a  vain  attempt,  and  out  of  keep¬ 
ing  with  the  object  of  this  work,  to  describe  in  detail 
the  “  bloody  assizes  ”  and  the  infernal  tragedies 
that  ensued  upon  the  accession  of  Alexander  III; 
the  moral  degeneracy  and  the  economic  ruin  that 
spread  over  the  mighty  empire;  the  shudder  that 
passed  over  the  civilized  world,  and  was  expressed 
in  indignation  meetings  held  everywhere,  especially 
in  Great  Britain  and  in  the  United  States  (Febru¬ 
ary,  1882),  to  protest,  u  in  the  name  of  civilization, 
against  the  spirit  of  medieval  persecution  thus  re¬ 
vived  in  Russia.”  Suffice  it  to  say  that  even  when 
the  mob,  tired  of  carnage,  ceased  its  work  of  ex¬ 
termination,  the  bloodthirstiness  of  those  in  author¬ 
ity  was  not  assuaged.  Such  a  policy  was  inaugurated 
against  the  Jews  as  would,  according  to  Pobyedo- 
nostsev,  “  force  one-third  of  them  to  emigrate,  an¬ 
other  third  to  embrace  Christianity,  and  the  remain¬ 
der  to  die  of  starvation.”  With  this  in  view,  his 
Majesty  the  Emperor,  “  prompted  by  a  desire  to 
protect  the  Jews  against  the  Christians,”  was  gra¬ 
ciously  pleased  to  give  his  assent  to  the  Resolutions 

270 


THE  AWAKENING 


of  the  Committee  of  Ministers,  on  the  third  of 
May,  1882,  i.  e.  to  the  notorious  “  temporary  meas¬ 
ures,”  or  “  May  laws,”  framed  by  Ignatiev,  against 
the  will  of  the  Council  of  the  Empire. 

These  “  temporary  measures  ”  have  remained  in 
force  to  this  day.  With  them  was  resuscitated  all 
the  inimical  legislation  of  the  past,  beginning  with 
the  time  of  Elizabeta  Petrovna.  What  was  favor¬ 
able  was  suppressed;  the  unfavorable  was  most 
rigorously  enforced.  Jews  living  outside  the  Pale 
were  driven  back  into  it  on  the  slightest  pretext  and 
in  the  most  inhuman  manner.  To  increase  the  al¬ 
ready  unendurable  congestion,  the  Pale  was  made 
smaller  than  before.  In  accordance  with  the  first 
clause  of  the  “  May  laws,”  Jews  were  expelled 
from  the  villages  within  the  Pale  itself.  In  1888 
the  districts  of  Rostov  and  Taganrog,  which  till 
then  had  belonged  to  the  Pale,  and  had  been  devel¬ 
oped  largely  through  Jewish  enterprise,  were  torn 
away  and  amalgamated  with  the  Don  district,  in 
which  Jews  were  not  permitted  to  reside.  This 
was  followed  by  expulsions  from  St.  Petersburg 
(1890),  Moscow,  (1891),  Novgorod,  Riga,  and 
Yalta  (1893),  and  the  abrogation  of  the  time- 
honored  privileges  of  the  Jews  of  Bokhara  ( 1896) . 
Even  those  who,  as  skilled  artisans  or  discharged 

271 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

soldiers,  had  been  privileged  to  reside  wherever  they 
chose,  were  expelled  with  their  wives  and  the  chil¬ 
dren  born  in  their  adopted  city.  Their  only  salva¬ 
tion  lay  in  conversion.  Converts  were  especially 
favored,  and  were  offered  liberal  inducements.  By 
becoming  a  convert  to  the  Orthodox  Russian 
Church,  a  Jew  is  immediately  freed  from  all  the 
degrading  restrictions  on  his  freedom  of  movement 
and  his  choice  of  a  profession.  Converts,  without 
distinction  of  sex,  are  helped  financially  by  an  im¬ 
mediate  payment  of  sums  from  thirteen  to  thirty 
rubles,  and  until  recently  were  granted  freedom 
from  taxation  for  five  years.  If  a  candidate  for 
Greek  Christianity  is  married,  his  conversion  pro¬ 
cures  him  a  divorce,  and,  unless  she  likewise  is  con¬ 
verted,  his  wife  may  not  marry  again.  By  conver¬ 
sion,  a  Jew  may  escape  the  consequence  of  any  mis¬ 
deed  against  a  fellow-Jew,  for,  to  quote  the  Russian 
code,  “  in  actions  concerning  Jews  who  have  em¬ 
braced  Christianity  Jews  may  not  be  admitted  as 
witnesses,  if  any  objection  is  raised  against  them  as 
such.”  The  penal  code  provides  that  Jews  shall 
pay  twice  and  treble  the  amount  of  the  fine  to  which 
non-Jews  are  liable  under  similar  circumstances. 
Jews  were  excluded  from  the  professions  to  which 
they  had  turned  in  the  “  sixties  ”  and  “  seventies,” 

272 


THE  AWAKENING 


and  in  which  they  had  been  eminently  successful; 
they  were  not  allowed  to  hold  any  civil  or  municipal 
office;  they  were  forbidden  even  to  be  nurses  in  the 
hospitals  or  to  give  private  instruction  to  children 
in  the  homes. 

And  still  persecution  did  not  cease.  Not  satisfied 
with  starving  the  bodies  of  five  millions  of  Jews, 
Russian  legislators  were  determined  to  crush  them 
intellectually.  The  Slavophils  could  not  brook 
seeing  “  non-Russians  ”  surpass  their  own  people 
in  the  higher  walks  of  life.  The  Jews,  finally  suc¬ 
cessful  in  emancipating  themselves  from  the  tram¬ 
mels  of  rabbinism,  had  transferred  their  extraordi¬ 
nary  devotion  from  the  Talmud  to  secular  studies. 
They  filled  the  schools  and  the  universities  of  the 
empire  with  zealous  and  intelligent  pupils,  who  car¬ 
ried  off  most  of  the  honors.  They  contributed 
forty-eight  pupils  to  the  gymnasia  out  of  every  ten 
thousand,  while  the  Christians  contributed  only 
twenty-two.  This  was  regarded  an  unpardonable 
sin.  “  These  Jews  have  the  audacity  to  excel  us 
pure  Russians,”  Pobyedonostsev  is  reported  to  have 
exclaimed,  and  measures  were  taken  to  suppress 
their  dangerous  tendency.  As  early  as  1875  a  law 
was  passed  withholding  from  Jewish  students  the 
stipends  they  had  hitherto  received  from  a  fund  set 
18  278 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

aside  for  that  purpose.  In  1882  the  number  of 
Jewish  students  in  the  Military  Academy  of  Medi¬ 
cine  was  limited  to  five  per  cent,  and  later  it  was 
reduced  to  zero.  Thereafter  one  professional 
school  after  another  adopted  a  percentage  pro¬ 
vision,  and  some  excluded  Jews  altogether.  Fin¬ 
ally,  “  seeing  that  many  Jewish  young  men,  eager 
to  benefit  by  a  higher  classical,  technical,  or  profes¬ 
sional  education,”  presented  themselves  every  year 
for  admission  to  the  universities,  that  they  passed 
their  examination  and  continued  their  studies  at 
the  various  schools  of  the  empire,  the  Government 
deemed  it  “  desirable  to  put  a  stop  to  a  state  of 
affairs  which  is  so  unsatisfactory.”  Consequently 
the  ministry  limited  the  attendance  of  Jews  residing 
in  places  within  the  Pale  to  ten  per  cent  in  all  schools 
and  universities  (December  5,  1886;  June  26, 
1887),  in  places  without  the  Pale  to  five  per  cent, 
and  in  Moscow  and  St.  Petersburg  to  three  per 
cent,  of  the  total  number  of  pupils  in  each  school 
and  university.  Of  the  four  hundred  young  Jews 
who  had  successfully  passed  their  matriculation 
examination  at  the  beginning  of  the  scholastic  year 
1887-1888,  and  had  thus  acquired  the  right  of  enter¬ 
ing  the  university,  three  hundred  and  twenty-six 
were  refused  admission,  and  in  many  schools  and 

274 


THE  AWAKENING 


universities  they  were  denied  even  the  small  per 
cent  the  law  permitted. 

When,  nevertheless,  in  spite  of  the  many  restric¬ 
tions,  the  Jew  at  last  obtained  the  coveted  degree, 
the  Government  rendered  it  nugatory  by  depriving 
him  of  the  right  of  enjoying  the  fruit  of  his  labor 
and  self-sacrifice.  He  could  not  practice  as  an  army 
physician  or  jurist,  nor  obtain  a  position  as  an  engi¬ 
neer  or  a  Government  or  municipal  clerk.  In  the 
army,  he  was  not  allowed  to  hold  any  office,  and, 
though  he  might  be  an  expert  chemist,  he  could 
never  fill  the  post  of  a  dispenser  (March  i,  1888). 
He  was  excluded  from  the  schools  for  the  training 
of  officers,  and  if  he  passed  the  examination  on  the 
subjects  taught  there,  his  certificate  could  not  con¬ 
tain  the  usual  statement  that  there  “  was  no  objec¬ 
tion  to  admitting  him  to  the  military  schools.”  1 

These  restrictive  measures  were  not  relaxed 
when  Alexander  III  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Nich¬ 
olas  II  (1894).  If  anything,  they  were  more 
rigorously  executed,  and  the  mob  was  encouraged 
to  multiply  its  outrages  upon  the  defenceless  Jews. 
The  closing  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  wiped 
out  the  promises  of  its  opening  years.  Blood 
accusations  followed  by  riots  became  of  frequent 
occurrence.  Irkutsk  (1896),  Shpola,  and  Kiev 

275 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


(1897),  Kantakuzov  (Kherson),  Vladimir,  and 
Nikolayev  (1899)  gave  the  Jews  a  foretaste  of 
what  they  had  to  expect  when  the  Black  Hundreds, 
encouraged  by  the  Government  and  incited  by 
Kruzhevan  and  Pronin,  would  be  let  loose  to  enact 
the  scenes  that  took  place  in  Kishinev  and  Homel 
before  the  Russo-Japanese  war,  and  in  hundreds  of 
towns  after  it.  The  difficulties  in  the  way  of  secur¬ 
ing  an  education  were  increased.  Russia  did  not 
believe  in  an  “  irreducible  minimum  ”  where  the 
rights  of  her  Jews  were  concerned.  Under  Nich¬ 
olas  II  the  number  of  Jewish  women  admitted  to 

/ 

medical  schools  was  put  at  three  per  cent  of  the 
total  number  of  students;  the  newly-established 
School  for  Engineers  in  Moscow  was  closed  to 
Jewish  young  men  altogether;  and  the  students  of 
both  sexes  in  the  schools  were  constantly  harassed 
by  the  police  because  of  the  harsh  laws  concerning 
the  rights  of  residence.  Some  splendidly  equipped 
institutions  of  learning  were  allowed  to  remain 
almost  empty  rather  than  admit  Jewish  students.2 

This  was  the  worst  punishment  of  all,  the  most 
relentless  vengeance  wreaked  on  a  helpless  victim. 
“  Of  all  the  laws  which  swept  down  upon  them 
from  St.  Petersburg  and  Moscow,”  says  Leroy- 
Beaulieu  with  characteristic  insight  into  the  soul  of 

276 


THE  AWAKENING 


Israel,  “  those  which  they  [the  Jews]  find  hardest 
to  bear  are  the  regulations  that  block  their  entrance 
to  the  Russian  universities.”  The  bloodless  weighed 
heavier  than  the  bloody  pogroms.  Consumed  with 
a  desire  for  education,  wealthy  Russian  Jews  made 
an  attempt  to  establish  higher  schools  of  their  own, 
without  even  drawing  upon  the  surplus  money  of 
the  kosher-meat  fund,  which  had  originally  been 
created  for  such  purposes.  Baron  de  Hirsch,  too, 
offered  two  million  dollars  for  the  higher  and  tech¬ 
nical  education  of  the  Jews.  But  every  attempt 
proved  fruitless.  Baron  de  Hirsch’s  munificence 
was  flatly  refused.  In  the  school  which  Mr.  Wein¬ 
stein  opened  at  Vinitza,  Podolia,  no  more  than  eight 
Jews  were  allowed  to  attend  among  eighty  Chris¬ 
tians,  and  in  the  one  at  Gorlovka,  founded  by  an¬ 
other  Jew  (Polyakov),  only  five  per  cent  were 
admitted.8 

Writers  are  wont  to  speak  of  this  as  a  reactionary 
period.  The  description  applies  to  the  Russians; 
among  the  Jews  it  was  a  period  of  reawakening.4 
They  were  disillusioned.  They  saw  that  Russifica¬ 
tion  without  emancipation,  as  their  unsophisticated 
fathers  had  told  Lilienthal,  meant  extermination. 
The  first  and  worst  pogroms  were  perpetrated  in 
those  places  where  the  Jews  were  like  their  Russian 

277 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


neighbors  in  every  respect,  except  in  the  eyes  of  the 
law,  and  with  the  approval  of  some  who  were  de¬ 
votees  of  the  Narodnaya  Volya.  The  Jewish  con¬ 
sciousness  reasserted  itself.  If  Pobyedonostsev  ac¬ 
complished  his  fiendish  design  as  regards  emigra¬ 
tion,  more  than  a  million  Jews  having  left  Russia 
within  the  last  twenty  years;  if  he  has  almost  suc¬ 
ceeded  in  causing  them  to  die  of  starvation;  yet  his 
hope  of  forcing  a  third  of  them  to  conversion  was 
a  disappointment  and  a  delusion.  The  Jews  showed 
that  the  traditional  description  applied  to  them, 
“  stiff-necked,”  was  not  undeserved.  While  the 
Roman  Catholics,  Lutherans,  and  Armenians  have 
undergone  conversion  in  multitudes,  they  whose 
suffering  by  far  exceeded  that  of  any  other  “  non- 
Russian  ”  nationality  remained,  with  insignificant 
exceptions,  loyal  to  the  religion  of  their  fathers.5 

The  Russian  Jews — says  Zunser — sobered  down  from  the  orgies 
of  assimilation,  and  its  worshippers  abandoned  their  idol.  Those 
who  had  almost  forgotten  that  they  were  of  the  camp  of  Israel 
began  to  return  to  its  tents.  The  Jewish  physicians,  jurists, 
technologists,  and  the  entire  so-called  Jewish  “  intelligentia,”  who 
heretofore  had  never  cared  to  speak  a  word  of  Yiddish  to  a  Jew, 
resumed  their  native  tongue;  they  began  to  send  their  children  to 
the  Jewish  hadarim,  and  adopted  once  more  Jewish  ways  and 
customs.  Several  hundred  Jewish  university  students,  pro¬ 
verbially  irreligious,  sent  to  Vilna  for  tefillin  [phylacteries] ! 

278 


THE  AWAKENING 


In  many  cities  fasts  were  observed  and  prayers 
for  forgiveness  offered,  and  the  prodigal  sons  of 
Israel  repaired  to  the  synagogue,  participated  in  the 
services,  and  wept  with  their  more  steadfast  though 
equally  unfortunate  coreligionists.  Many  converts, 
too,  began  to  feel  qualms  of  conscience,  and  en¬ 
deavored  to  make  up  for  their  youthful  indiscre¬ 
tions.  Some  of  them  fled  to  places  of  safety,  and 
returned  to  Judaism.  The  gifted  young  poet  Simon 
Yakovlevich  Nadsohn  died  of  a  broken  heart.  Sor- 
kin,  the  classmate  and  friend  of  Levanda,  com¬ 
mitted  suicide,  while  Levanda,  the  great  novelist 
of  assimilation,  was  so  affected  by  the  massacres 
and  their  consequences,  that  he  became  melancholy, 
and  died  in  an  asylum  for  the  insane.6 

If  this  was  the  fate  of  the  assimilated  and  es¬ 
tranged,  one  may  guess  the  effect  of  the  reaction 
on  the  religious.  If  the  students  of  the  universities 
sacrificed  their  careers,  their  daily  bread,  for  the 
austere  satisfaction  of  discharging  their  moral 
obligation  to  the  best  of  their  knowledge,  the 
students  of  the  Law,  always  loyal  to  the  heritage  of 
their  people,  became  more  zealous  than  ever. 
Lilienblum  who,  in  1877,  believed  that  life  without 
a  university  education  was  not  worth  living,  became 
a  repentant  sinner.  Russian  Jewry  seethed  with 

279 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

religious  enthusiasm.  Moses  Isaac  Darshan,  “  the 
Khelmer  Maggid,’’  preached  for  six  hours  at  a  time 
to  crowded  synagogues.  Asher  Israelit,  less  trench¬ 
ant,  but  equally  effective,  exhorted  crowds  to  re¬ 
pentance.  Zebi  Hirsh  Masliansky,  a  finished  ora¬ 
tor,  went  from  town  to  town,  and  aroused  a  love 
for  whatever  was  connected  with  the  history  and 
religion  of  the  Jewish  people.  In  Kovno  those  who 
were  preparing  themselves  for  the  rabbinate  formed 
something  like  a  new  sect,  the  Mussarnikes  (Mor¬ 
alists),  which  practiced  asceticism  and  self-abnega¬ 
tion  to  an  extraordinary  degree.7 

Those,  however,  were  most  affected  who  had 
been  misled  by  dreams  of  assimilation.  They  suf¬ 
fered  most,  for  they  lost  most.  Their  hopes  were 
blighted,  their  hearts  broken.  The  leading-strings 
proved  to  be  a  halter.  They  saw  they  had  little  to 
expect  at  the  hands  of  those  they  had  believed  to 
have  become  fully  civilized,  and  they  were  embit¬ 
tered  toward  civilization,  which  had  showed  them 
flowers,  but  had  given  them  no  fruit.  In  a  work, 
Sinat  'Olam  le-Am  'Olam  ( Eternal  Hatred  for  the 
Eternal  People y  Warsaw,  1882),  Nahum  Sokolov 
proved,  like  Smolenskin  before  him,  that  anti-Semi¬ 
tism  was  ineradicable,  that  the  fight  against  the  Jews 
was  a  fight  to  the  death,  that  even  emancipation 

280 


MOSES  LOB  LILIENBLUM 
1843-1910 


> 


THE  AWAKENING 


helps  little  to  remove  the  animosity  innate  in  one 
people  against  another,  and  until  the  “  end  of  days  ” 
foretold  by  the  prophets  of  yore  there  will  never 
cease  the  eternal  hatred  to  the  eternal  people.  This 
became  the  dominant  opinion.  It  dawned  upon 
many  that  the  only  salvation  for  the  Jews  lay  in  be¬ 
coming  a  nation  once  more.  A  yearning  for  a  new 
fatherland  and  a  new  country  seized  young  and  old. 
The  times  were  auspicious.  Cosmopolitanism  was 
everywhere  giving  place  to  nationalism.  The  little 
Balkan  States  had  broken  the  yoke  of  Ottoman  rule, 
and  become  self-governing  nations  since  1878.  In 
Poland,  Hungary,  and  Ireland,  home  rule  was  ad¬ 
vocated  with  fervor  that  threatened  a  revolution. 
Italy  and  Germany  became  united  under  their  own 
king  or  emperor.  And  the  Russian  Jews,  tired  of 
the  constant  conflicts  with  the  surrounding  peoples, 
experienced  the  desire  which  had  prompted  their 
ancestors  to  be  like  all  the  other  nations. 

Sokolov’s  sentiments  were  reinforced  in  an  anony¬ 
mous  pamphlet  written  by  Doctor  Leo  Pinsker 
(1821-1891),  one  of  the  foremost  physicians  of 
Odessa.  His  Auto-Emancipation  (Berlin,  1882) 
is  now  recognized  as  the  forerunner  of  Herzl’s 
Judenstaat,  which  appeared  fifteen  years  later. 
Pinsker  accepts  as  an  axiom  what  Sokolov  had  tried 

281 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

to  demonstrate  as  a  proposition.  Jew-hatred,  he 
claims,  like  Lombroso  in  his  work  on  anti-Semitism, 
is  a  “  platonic  hatred, ”  a  hereditary  mental  disease, 
which  two  thousand  years’  duration  has  so  aggra¬ 
vated  as  to  render  it  incurable.  As  the  Jewish 
problem  is  international,  it  can  be  solved  only  by 
nationalism.  He  admits  some  of  the  charges 
brought  against  the  Jews  by  anti-Semites,  but  Jew¬ 
ish  failings  result  from  Christian  intolerance.  In 
a  land  of  their  own  they  will  develop  into  a  Muster- 
nation,  a  model  people. 

The  wretches — cries  he — they  mock  the  eagle  that  once  soared 
sky-high,  and  saw  divinity  itself,  because  he  can  no  longer  fly 
after  his  wings  are  broken !  Give  us  but  our  independence,  allow 
us  to  take  care  of  ourselves,  grant  us  but  a  little  strip  of  land  like 
that  of  the  Servians  and  Rumanians,  give  us  a  chance  to  lead  a 
national  existence,  and  then  prate  about  our  lacking  manly  virtues. 
What  we  lack  is  not  genius  (Genialitat)  but  self-consciousnes9 
(Selbstgefiihl)  and  appreciation  of  our  value  as  men  (Bewusstsein 
der  Menschenwurde) ,  of  which  we  were  deprived  by  you! 

Of  course,  it  requires  many  years  and  a  great  ex¬ 
penditure  of  money  to  establish  a  nation  on  a  firm 
basis.  But  in  Pinsker’s  dictionary  the  word  “  im¬ 
possible  ”  does  not  exist.  “  Far,  very  far,”  says 
he,  “  is  the  haven  of  rest  towards  which  our  souls 
are  turning.  We  know  not  even  whether  it  be  East 

282 


THE  AWAKENING 

or  West.  But  be  the  road  never  so  long,  it  cannot 
seem  too  long  to  the  wanderers  of  two  thousand 
years.” 

Pinsker’s  impassioned  appeal  made  a  deep  im¬ 
pression.  It  was  obvious  that  colonization  would 
be  the  shortest  road  to  renationalization.  But  as 
to  the  place  in  which  the  colonies  should  be  estab¬ 
lished,  no  agreement  could  be  reached.  Pinsker, 
like  Herzl  after  him,  left  the  problem  unsolved. 
Some  preferred  America  or  even  Spain.  In  south¬ 
ern  Russia  a  society,  'Am  'Olam  (The  Eternal  Na¬ 
tion) ,  was  organized  on  communistic  principles.  It 
sent  an  advance  guard  to  the  United  States,  where, 
as  the  Sons  of  the  Free,  they  established  several  set¬ 
tlements,  the  best-known  of  which  was  New  Odessa, 
in  Oregon.8  The  majority,  however,  preferred  Pal¬ 
estine,  the  land  which,  in  weal  or  woe,  in  pain  or 
pleasure,  remains  ever  dear  to  the  Jewish  heart;  the 
land  to  which  the  ancient  exiles  by  the  waters  of 
Babylon  had  vowed  that  sooner  than  forget  her 
would  their  right  hands  forget  their  cunning  and 
their  tongues  cleave  to  the  roofs  of  their  mouths; 
the  possession  whereof  had  been  held  out  as  the 
most  alluring  promise,  and  to  be  deprived  of  which 
the  prophets  had  regarded  as  the  severest  punish¬ 
ment. 


288 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


Zionism,  even  Territorialism,  among  the  Russian 
Jews  is  by  no  means  solely  the  result  of  modern 
anti-Semitism.  At  the  same  time  that  Mordecai 
Manuel  Noah  was  planning  his  Jewish  state  Ararat 
in  western  New  York  (1825),  Gregori  Peretz, 
who,  as  a  child,  had  been  converted,  with  his  father, 
to  the  dominant  religion,  and  had  been  advanced 
to  the  rank  of  an  officer  in  his  Majesty’s  army,  was 
dreaming  of  the  renationalization  of  his  alienated 
brethren.  As  a  leading  figure  in  the  councils  of  the 
Dekabrists,  he  never  ceased  his  efforts  until  his 
comrades  accepted  the  restoration  of  Israel  to  his 
pristine  place  among  the  nations  of  the  earth  as 
part  of  their  revolutionary  programme.  But  with 
the  suppression  of  the  Dekabrists  by  Nicholas  I 
the  scheme  died  “  a-borning,”  and  sank  into  ob¬ 
livion.  Later,  David  Gordon  revived  the  yearn¬ 
ings  of  Judah  Halevi  by  his  articles  in  the  weekly 
Ha-Maggid  (1863),  which  he  edited  in  Lyck, 
Prussia.  Smolenskin’s  writings  resound  with  a  love 
for  Zion  from  the  very  beginning  of  his  literary 
career.  And  a  rising  young  Hebraist,  Eliezer  ben 
Yehudah,  while  still  a  student  of  medicine,  wrote, 
in  1878,  and  again  in  1880,  stirring  letters  to  the 
editor  of  Ha-Shahar,  in  which  he  advocated  the 
return  to  the  Holy  Land  and  the  revival  of  the  holy 

284 


THE  AWAKENING 


tongue  as  a  conditio  sine  qua  non  for  the  realiza¬ 
tion  of  the  Jewish  mission.  These  views,  at  first 
advocated  by  the  Hebrew-writing  and  Hebrew- 
reading  Maskilim,  gradually  filtered  into  the 
various  strata  of  Russo-Jewish  society,  and  when 
the  clouds  began  to  gather  fast  in  Russia’s  sky, 
and  the  change  in  the  monarch’s  policy  augured 
the  approach  of  evil  times,  Zionism  rapidly  made 
enthusiastic  converts  even  among  the  most  Russi¬ 
fied  of  the  Jewish  youth.  On  November  6,  1884, 
for  the  first  time  in  history,  a  Jewish  international 
assembly  was  held  at  Kattowitz,  near  the  Russian 
frontier,  where  representatives  from  all  classes 
and  different  countries  met  and  decided  to  colonize 
Palestine  with  Jewish  farmers. 

Since  then  Haskalah  in  Russia  has  become  nation¬ 
alistic  and  Palestinian.  Even  those  who  were  at 
first  opposed  to  it  gradually  grew  friendly,  and 
finally  became  “  lovers  of  Zion  ”  (Hobebe  Zion). 
Among  the  Russo-Jewish  students  in  Vienna,  Smo- 
lenskin,  the  militant  Zionist,  organized  an  academic 
society,  Kadimah,  a  name  which,  meaning  East¬ 
ward  and  Forward,  contains  the  philosophy  of  Zion¬ 
ism  in  a  nutshell.  Seeing  that  the  Alliance  Israelite 
Universelle  encouraged  emigration  to  America, 
both  he  and  Ben  Yehudah  published  violent  attacks 

285 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

on  the  French  society,  and  endeavored  to  thwart 
its  plans  as  far  as  possible.9  The  Hebrew  weekly 
Ha-Meliz,  published  in  St.  Petersburg,  was  a 
staunch  supporter  of  the  movement,  and  a  little 
later  Ha-Zefirah,  published  in  Warsaw,  which  was 
at  first  indifferent,  if  not  antagonistic,  joined  the 
ranks.  In  Russian,  too,  the  Razsvyet  and  espe¬ 
cially  the  Buduchnost  spread  Zionism  among  their 
readers,  while  books,  pamphlets,  and  poems  were 
published  in  Yiddish  for  circulation  among  the 
masses.  In  addition  to  the  Hobebe  Zion  societies 
formed  in  many  cities,  secret  societies  were  organ¬ 
ized,  such  as  the  famous  Bene  Mosheh  (Sons  of 
Moses),  which  had  for  its  object  the  moral  and 
intellectual  improvement  of  the  future  citizens  of 
the  Jewish  Republic;  the  Bilu  (initials  of  Bet 
Ya'akob  leku  we-nelekah,  “  O  House  of  Jacob, 
come  and  let  us  go  ”),  formed  by  Israel  Belkind, 
who  went  to  Palestine  with  his  fellow-students  of 
the  University  of  Kharkov,  and  founded  the  colony 
of  Gederah;  and  the  Hillul  (Hereb  la-Adonai 
u-le-Arzenu,  “  A  sword  for  God  and  our  land  ”), 
the  members  of  which  pledged  themselves  to  re¬ 
move  any  obstacle  to  the  cause  of  nationalism, 
even  at  the  cost  of  their  lives.  The  Bone  Zion 
(Builders  of  Zion),  a  sort  of  Masonic  fraternity, 

286 


THE  AWAKENING 


was  a  very  potent  secret  society,  which  undertook  to 
constitute  itself  a  provisional  Jewish  Government, 
and  assiduously  watched  the  Zionistic  societies  and 
their  leaders  in  every  portion  of  the  globe.10 

These  dreamy  youths,  however,  heartbroken 
and  disgusted  with  a  civilization  which  had  failed 
to  redeem  its  promises,  proved  but  poor  material 
for  laying  the  foundations  for  a  future  nation.  It 
was  as  with  the  Darien  Company  organized  by 
William  Paterson  when  Scotland  was  sorely  dis¬ 
tressed,  and  the  Champ  d’Asile,  by  the  remnant  of 
Napoleon’s  grand  army — a  fine  idea,  but  the  men 
and  the  means  were  wanting  to  execute  it.  The 
colonies  in  Palestine  fared  no  better  than  those  in 
America.  They  were  opposed  by  the  Government 
from  without  and  by  many  of  the  orthodox  Jews 
from  within.  The  former,  though  claiming  to  be 
glad  to  see  the  Jews  emigrate,  though  declaring  to 
the  Jewish  delegation  that  pleaded  for  mercy, 
Zapadnaya  graniza  dlya  vas  otkrita  (“  the  Western 
frontier  is  open  to  you  ”),  was  still,  Pharaoh-like, 
reluctant  to  see  so  many  “  undesirable  citizens  ” 
leave,  and  prohibited  the  formation  of  organiza¬ 
tions  to  accomplish  the  end.  The  orthodox  were 
against  the  movement  on  religious  grounds,  because 
it  was  “  forcing  the  end  ”  of  Israel’s  trouble  before 

287 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

the  destined  day  of  God  arrived.11  But  with  the 
“  nineties  ”  the  movement  received  a  strong  im¬ 
petus.  Alexander  Zederbaum,  the  publisher  of 
Ha-Meliz,  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  charter  (Febru¬ 
ary  9,  1890)  for  the  Association  for  the  Aid  of 
Colonization  in  Palestine  and  Syria.  Such  eminent 
rabbis  as  Mordecai  Eliasberg,  his  son  Jonathan, 
Samuel  Mohilever,  N.  Z.  Y.  Berlin,  and  Mordecai 
Joffe  espoused  the  cause,  and  set  the  example  for 
their  less  prominent  colleagues.  When  the  question 
arose  whether  Jewish  argiculturists  in  Palestine  are 
obliged  to  observe  the  Biblical  injunction  not  to  till 
the  ground  in  the  seventh  year  (shemittah),  Rabbi 
Isaac  Elhanan  Spector  of  Kovno,  the  leading  rabbi 
and  Talmudist  of  his  time,  decided,  in  opposition 
to  the  Jerusalem  rabbinate,  that  the  law  had  ceased 
to  be  effective  with  the  destruction  of  the  Temple. 
Baron  Edmond  de  Rothschild  of  Paris  also  came 
to  the  rescue  of  the  colonists,  and,  more  important 
still,  there  began  an  immigration  of  Russo-Jewish 
farmers  into  Palestine,  of  the  class,  numbering 
about  ninety-five  thousand  souls,  whom  Arnold 
White  described  as  “  an  active,  well  set-up,  sun¬ 
burnt,  muscular,  agricultural  people,  marked  by  all 
the  characteristics  of  a  peasantry  of  the  highest 
character.”  With  them  the  colonies  began  to  flour- 

288 


THE  AWAKENING 


ish,  the  debts  were  paid  off,  and  a  better  regime  set 
in.  “  There  was  no  crime  or  drunkenness,”  says 
Bentwich,  “  in  those  settlements,  and  the  only  usurer 
was  a  Russian  peasant,  who  charged  the  Jewish  bor¬ 
rowers  thirty-six  per  cent  for  loans.  If  ever  I  saw 
practical  religion  carried  into  daily  life,  it  was 
among  those  brave  and  sober  Hebrew  plough- 

JJ  03 

men. 

Whatever  may  be  one’s  views  on  Zionism,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  it  has  proved  a  power  for  good 
in  Russia.  It  introduced  new  ideals  and  revived 
old  expectations.  It  has  accomplished,  in  a  meas¬ 
ure,  the  fond  hope  of  the  Maskilim  and  awakened 
within  the  Russian  Jew  a  feeling  of  self-respect  and 
a  “  consciousness  of  human  worth.”  Different 
and  contending  elements  it  has  coalesced  into 
one.  It  has,  above  all,  brought  back  to  the  fold  the 
doubting  Thomases  and  careless  Gallios,  even  the 
avowed  scoffers,  among  the  Jewish  youth,  and  im¬ 
bued  them  with  courage  and  pride,15  and  given  them 
a  new  shibboleth,  Meine  Kunst  der  Welt ,  mein 
Leben  meinem  Folke  (“  My  art  for  the  world,  my 
life  for  my  people  ”) . 

“We  have  seen  our  youths  return  to  us,”  writes 
Lilienblum,14  “  and  our  hearts  were  filled  with  joy. 
In  their  restoration  we  found  balm  for  our  wounds, 

289 


19 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


and  with  rapturous  wonderment  we  asked  ‘  who  has 
borne  us  these?  ’  ”  The  poets  welcomed  them  with 
songs.  Gordon,  whose  sorrow  had  silenced  his 
muse,  was  inspired  once  more  and  called: 

Behold  our  sons,  of  whom  we  despaired, 

Return  to  us,  the  great  and  the  small; 

God’s  grace  is  not  ended,  our  power’s  unimpaired, 

Again  we  shall  live,  and  rise  after  the  fall! 

Frug  sang  in  Russian : 

My  own  Nation, 

Thou  art  not  alone ;  thy  sons  behold 

Coming  back  in  crowds  as  in  days  of  old ! 

And  Zunser  represented  Rachel  as  soliloquizing 
in  Yiddish : 

Through  the  windows  what  am  I  seeing, 

Like  turtle-doves  hitherward  fleeing? 

Are  my  Joseph  and  Benjamin  knocking  at  my  door? 

O  Heavens,  O  mighty  wonder! 

Those  are  my  children  yonder! 

Yes,  my  dearest  and  my  truest  coming  home  once  more! 

But  Zionism  is  not  exclusively  either  a  political 
or  a  religious  movement.  It  is  both  plus  something 
else;  it  is  eminently  educational.  It  has  produced 
novelists  and  poets,  whose  writings  are  full  of  the 
virility  and  beauty  of  a  rejuvenated  nation.  In 

290 


THE  AWAKENING 

Jaffa  it  established  a  high  school  (Bet  ha-Sefer), 
it  inspired  Doctor  Chazanowicz  to  establish  a  na¬ 
tional  library,  and  ways  and  means  are  being  con¬ 
sidered  to  establish  a  national  university  in  Palestine. 

Even  among  the  devotees  of  the  arts  it  has  given 
rise  to  a  new  romantic  school,  young  painters  and 
sculptors  who  are  depicting  their  Judenschmerz. 

Their  cunning  hands — says  Mr.  Leo  Mielziner — have  mastered 
the  technique  of  their  art,  be  it  in  Moscow  or  Munich,  or  Berlin,  or 
Paris,  but  the  heart  which  inspires  their  brush  or  mallet  pulsates 
in  Palestine.  The  wandering  Jew  in  them  pauses,  not  to  portray 
the  impression  of  the  foreign  lands  and  stranger  customs,  but  to 
depict  his  own  suffering,  his  own  Heimweh,  his  own  aspirations. 

Struck,  Ashkenasi,  Maimon,  Hirszenberg,  Gott¬ 
lieb,  Epstein,  Lobschutz,  and  Schatz  are  the  lead¬ 
ers  of  this  new  movement.  The  last-named,  to¬ 
gether  with  Ephraim  Moses  Lilien  of  Galicia,  per¬ 
haps  the  greatest  Jewish  illustrator  of  our  time,  has 
founded  a  national  school,  Bezalel,  to  propagate 
Jewish  art  in  Palestine,  on  the  same  principles 
on  which  the  great  national  art  schools  of  other 
countries  are  based.  The  language  of  instruction  is 
Hebrew. 

Meanwhile  the  Society  for  the  Promotion  of 
Haskalah  continued  its  work  of  Russification  and1 

291 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

general  civilization.  After  1880  its  activity  was 
greatly  enhanced,  and  its  members  worked  with  re¬ 
newed  zeal.  It  opened  elementary  schools,  and 
expended  large  sums  on  stipends  for  students,  and 
the  publication  of  useful  and  scholarly  books.  The 
branch  in  Odessa  secured  two  hundred  and  thirty- 
one  new  members  in  one  year  ( 1900),  making  the 
total  in  that  city  alone  nine  hundred  and  sixty-eight. 
It  organized  a  bureau  of  information  on  pedagogic 
subjects,  and  through  the  liberality  of  Kalonymos 
Wissotzky  instituted  prizes  for  original  works  in 
Hebrew  or  Russian.  Individual  philanthropists 
did  their  utmost  to  counterbalance  the  restrictions 
on  education.15 

Trade  schools  were  opened  by  the  Committee 
for  the  Promotion  of  a  Knowledge  of  Trade  and 
Agriculture  among  the  Jews  of  Russia,  in  Minsk, 
Vilna,  and  Vitebsk,  besides  fifteen  manual  training 
schools  for  boys  and  twenty  for  girls,  in  which  the 
indigent  pupils  are  provided  with  food,  clothes,  and 
books.  In  1900  thirteen  new  schools  were  opened 
in  Kherson  and  Yekaterinoslav,  to  supply  the  educa¬ 
tional  demand  of  the  thirty-eight  colonies  existing 
in  those  Governments.  In  the  vicinity  of  Minsk  a 
Junior  Republic  was  organized,  and  in  many  cities 
art  and  choral  societies  were  formed.16 


292 


THE  AWAKENING 


The  desire  for  self-help  and  the  tendency  towards 
organization,  to  which  Zionism  gave  an  impetus, 
was  rapidly  reflected  in  every  sphere  of  Russo-Jew- 
ish  activity.  In  a  series  of  works  and  articles,  Jacob 
Wolf  Mendlin,  who  studied  under  Lassalle,  pointed 
out  the  importance  of  the  co-operative  system.  Ac¬ 
cordingly,  a  union  was  organized  by  the  Jewish 
salesmen  in  Warsaw.  In  1 897  a  conference  of  Jew¬ 
ish  workingmen  was  held  in  that  city  and  Der  allge- 
meine  jiidische  Arbeiterbund  in  Littauen,  Polen, 
und  Russland  (Federation  of  Jewish  Labor  Un¬ 
ions  in  Lithuania,  Poland,  and  Russia)  was  per¬ 
fected.  It  published  three  papers  as  its  organs, 
Die  Arbeiterstimme,  Der  jiidischer  Arbeiter,  and, 
in  Switzerland,  Letzte  Nachrichten.  Soon  work¬ 
men’s  associations  and  artisans’  clubs  appeared 
wherever  there  was  a  sufficient  number  of  Jewish 
tailors,  hatters,  bookbinders,  etc.,  for  the  purpose 
of  increasing  and  improving  the  value  of  their 
production,  and  to  do  away  with  middlemen  and 
money-lenders.  They  organized  a  tailors’,  dyers’, 
and  shoemakers’  union  in  Kharkov,  and  a  car¬ 
penters’  union  in  Minsk,  for  mutual  support  in 
the  struggle  for  existence,  and  for  the  construction 
of  sanitary  workingmen’s  houses.  The  cultural  de¬ 
sire  of  the  handicraftsmen,  constituting  twelve  per 

298 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

cent  of  the  Russo-Jewish  population  and  occasion¬ 
ally  fifty-two  per  cent  (Odessa),  seventy-three 
per  cent  (Kovno),  and  even  ninety  per  cent  (Bye- 
lostok),  is  phenomenal.  Their  object  is  not  only 
physical  improvement.  Their  highest  aim  is  that 
their  members  be  enabled,  by  means  of  efficient 
night  schools  and  private  instruction,  to  acquire 
elementary  and  higher  education;  in  the  words  of 
the  constitution  of  the  carpenters’  union  of  Minsk, 
“  to  protect  their  material  interests,  raise  their 
moral  and  intellectual  status,  and  foster  efforts  of 
self-help.”  17 

The  Hebrew  teachers,  a  class  which,  though 
more  respected,  underwent  as  hard  a  struggle  as  the 
workingmen,  banded  themselves  together  in  1899 
in  the  Society  for  Aiding  Hebrew  Teachers  of  the 
Province  of  Vilna.  Their  president  was  Michael 
Wolper,  the  inspector  of  the  Hebrew  Institute  and 
successor  to  Wohl  as  censor  of  Hebrew  publica¬ 
tions.  Similar  attempts  were  made  in  Bessarabia. 
Rabbi  Shachor,  chairman  of  the  Hebrew  Teachers’ 
Association  of  Yekaterinoslav,  was  instrumental  in 
opening  a  normal  school  conducted  on  Chautauqua 
principles,  and  so  advanced  the  cause  of  education 
considerably.18 


294 


THE  AWAKENING 

With  the  establishment  of  the  rabbinical  sem¬ 
inaries  and  the  ukase  (May  3,  1855)  that  only 
such  may  officiate  as  rabbis  as  have  completed  a 
prescribed  course  of  study,  Russian  Jewry  was 
placed  in  a  sore  predicament.  It  was  a  very  difficult 
task  to  find  men  who  united  secular  knowledge  with 
that  thorough  mastery  of  Talmudic  literature  which 
the  Jews  of  Russia  exact  from  their  rabbis.  Every 
community  was  compelled  to  appoint  two  rabbis: 
an  orthodox  rabbi  (dukhovny  rabbin)  and  a 
“  crown,”  or  Government,  rabbi  (kazyony  rab¬ 
bin).  The  people  recognized  only  the  authority 
of  the  former,  the  Government  that  of  the  latter. 
The  consequence  was  that  a  man  with  a  mere  high- 
school  education  would  apply  for,  and  would  often 
receive,  the  position  of  crown-rabbi.  His  duties 
consisted  in  merely  keeping  a  register  of  marriages, 
births,  and  deaths,  administering  the  oath,  and  the 
like.  The  many  lawyers  and  physicians  who  were 
debarred  from  practicing  their  professions  sought 
to  become  candidates  for  the  rabbinate.  To  avoid 
the  unpleasant  results  which  followed,  Rabbi  Cher- 
novich  of  Odessa  and  Rabbi  I.  J.  Reines  of  Lyda 
established  seminaries  in  Odessa  and  Lyda,  to  take 
the  place  and  to  continue  the  teaching  of  the  Vilna 
and  the  Volozhin  yeshibot,  which  had  been  closed, 

295 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


and  to  furnish  proper  rabbis  for  the  various  con¬ 
gregations.19 

The  century-long  struggle  for  enlightenment  had 
a  telling  effect.  What  the  early  Maskilim  had  only 
dreamed  of  finally  came  to  be.  The  metamor¬ 
phosis  was  so  great  and  so  general  as  to  be  hardly 
credible.  It  was  shown  by  Mr.  Landman,  in  a 
paper  read  before  the  Russo-Jewish  Historical  So¬ 
ciety  of  Odessa,  that  while  among  the  Gentiles  of 
that  city  the  reading  public  constituted  seven  per 
cent  of  the  population,  among  Jews  it  was  no  less 
than  thirty-three  per  cent,  and  twenty-five  per  cent 
of  all  readers  were  Jewish  women.20  By  1905  there 
were  two  Yiddish  and  three  Hebrew  dailies,  be¬ 
sides  several  weekly,  monthly,  and  quarterly  period¬ 
icals  and  annuals  in  Yiddish,  Hebrew,  and  Rus¬ 
sian,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  a  numerous 
class  depended  on  the  general  Russian  literary  out¬ 
put  for  their  mental  pabulum. 

As  the  number  of  those  who  read  Hebrew  was 
still  considerable,  Abraham  Lob  Shalkovich  (Ben 
Avigdor)  began,  with  the  assistance  of  a  number 
of  Maskilim,  the  publication  of  “  penny  literature  ” 
(Sifre  Agorah,  Warsaw,  1893).  Shortly  after¬ 
wards  the  Ahiasaf  Society  and,  a  little  later,  the 
Tushiyah  Society  were  founded.  The  object  was 

296 


THE  AWAKENING 


to  edit  and  publish  “  good  and  useful  books  in  the 
Hebrew  language  for  the  spread  of  knowledge  and 
the  teaching  of  morality  and  culture  among  the  He¬ 
brew  youth,  also  scientific  books  in  all  departments 
of  learning.”  Both  these  associations  have  done 
admirable  work.  They  have  published  many  good 
text-books  for  teaching  Hebrew  and  Jewish  history, 
an  illustrated  periodical  for  children,  'Olam  Katan 
(The  Little  World),  and  numerous  works  of  in¬ 
terest  to  the  adult.  Among  their  publications  were, 
besides  the  original  writings  of  Peretz,  Taviov, 
Frischman,  Berdichevsky,  Chernikhovsky,  and 
others,  also  translations  from  Bogrov,  Byron,  Frug, 
Hugo,  Nordau,  Shakespeare,  Spencer,  Zangwill, 
Zola,  critical  biographies  of  Aristotle,  Copernicus, 
George  Eliot,  Heine,  Lassalle,  Nietzsche,  Rous¬ 
seau,  and  a  great  many  equally  famous  men  of  let¬ 
ters,  which  followed  each  other  in  promiscuous  but 
uninterrupted  succession,  all  handsomely  printed 
and  prettily  bound,  and  sold  at  a  moderate  price. 

One  evil,  however,  remained,  in  the  face  of  which 
both  the  Maskilim  and  the  financiers  found  them¬ 
selves  utterly  helpless,  the  evil  of  the  exclusion  of 
Jews  from  the  universities.  They  could  found  ele¬ 
mentary  and  high  schools  for  the  young,  night 
schools  and  Sabbath  Schools  for  the  adult  working- 

297 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 

men,  but  to  establish  a  university  was  an  absolute 
impossibility.  Jewish  youths  were  again  com¬ 
pelled,  as  in  the  days  of  Tobias  Cohn  and  Solomon 
Maimon,  to  seek  in  foreign  lands  the  education 
denied  them  in  their  own.  Austria,  Switzerland, 
France,  and  chiefly  Germany,  became  once  more 
the  Meccas  whither  Russo-Jewish  graduates  re¬ 
paired  to  finish  their  studies,  and  where  they  formed 
a  sort  of  Latin  Quarters  of  their  own,  and  led  al¬ 
most  a  communal  life.  Their  numbers  in  the  Ger¬ 
man  universities  grew  to  such  proportions,  and 
their  material  condition  became  so  wretched,  that 
a  society  was  organized  in  Berlin  for  the  express 
purpose  of  helping  them.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
authorities  protested  ( 1906)  against  expending  the 
funds  granted  each  year  for  German  educational 
institutions  on  the  education  of  non-Germans,  and 
the  Akademischer  Club  of  Berlin  passed  resolutions 
demanding  a  regulation  against  their  admission.  In 
Leipsic  alone,  of  the  six  hundred  and  sixty-two  for¬ 
eign  students  who  attended  the  university,  three 
hundred  and  forty,  or  over  one-half,  are  Russian 
Jews  (1906).  Of  the  five  hundred  and  eighty-six 
students  enrolled  in  the  Commercial  University, 
three  hundred  and  twenty-two  are  foreigners, 
among  whom  Russians  predominate,  and  of  the 

298 


THE  AWAKENING 


eight  hundred  students  who  attend  the  Royal  Con¬ 
servatory  of  Music,  three  hundred  are  foreigners, 
also  mostly  Russians.  Russians  constitute  two  hun¬ 
dred  and  two  of  the  three  hundred  and  forty-seven 
pupils  in  the  Dresden  Polytechnicum,  and  sixty  out 
of  one  hundred  and  thirty-seven  in  the  Dresden 
Veterinary  College,  while  in  the  Freiberg  School 
of  Mines  and  in  the  Tharand  Forestry  Academy 
they  are  in  a  majority,  though  they  pay  twice,  and 
in  some  places  three  times,  the  amount  of  tuition 
fee  required  from  the  native  students.  The  pro¬ 
portion  is  still  greater  in  the  Swiss  universities  of 
Basle,  Berne,  Geneva,  Lausanne,  and  Zurich,  where 
they  sometimes  constitute  three-fourths  of  the  entire 
student  body  in  the  medical  schools  (Geneva, 

1907). 

And  as  for  the  progress  made  by  the  Russo-Jew- 
ish  woman,  it  is  wonderful,  indeed.  It  is  hardly 
a  quarter  of  a  century  since  attention  began  to  be 
given  to  her  mental  development,  and  yet  she  has 
seldom  lagged  behind  her  sisters  in  more  enlight¬ 
ened  lands,  and  has  lately  attained  to  a  proud 
height.  Vilna,  with  her  “  many  well-educated 
wives,”  attracted  the  attention  of  Montefiore  in  the 
early  “  forties  ” ;  Tarnopol  speaks  in  terms  of  high 
praise  of  the  Jewish  women  of  Odessa  in  the  “  six- 

299 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


ties  ” ;  they  “  charm  by  their  culture,  by  the  ease 
and  precision  with  which  they  speak  several  Euro¬ 
pean  languages,  by  the  correctness  of  their  judg¬ 
ment,  and  the  beauty  of  their  conversation.”  21  The 
memoirs  of  Madame  Pauline  Wengeroff  throw  a 
sidelight  also  on  the  accomplishments  of  her  sisters 
in  the  less  enlightened  districts  of  Russian  Jewry. 
But  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  and  the 
early  part  of  the  twentieth  century,  their  advance 
was  prodigious.22  When  decent  Jewish  women 
were  prohibited  to  reside  in  St.  Petersburg,  some 
of  the  Jewish  female  students,  at  the  risk  of  their 
reputation,  secured  the  yellow  ticket  of  the  prosti¬ 
tute  rather  than  sacrifice  their  education.  But  the 
majority  went  to  other  countries.  The  press  has 
lately  been  interested  in  what  these  seekers  for  light 
in  foreign  lands  have  accomplished,  and  reported 
the  successes  of  Fanny  Berlin,  who  graduated  from 
the  University  of  Berne  as  doctor  of  law  summa 
cum  laude,  and  of  Miss  Kanyevsky  of  Zinkoff  (Pol¬ 
tava),  who  was  the  first  woman  to  take  her  degree 
as  engineer  at  the  Ecole  des  Pontes  et  Chaussees, 
in  Paris 

It  is  a  curious  fact — remarks  a  correspondent  in  the  Pall  MalE 
Gazette — the  majority  [of  lady  doctors  practicing  in  Paris]  are 
Russian  Jewesses,  just  as  are  the  greatest  number  of  young 

300 


THE  AWAKENING 


women  medical  students.  At  a  rough  calculation  there  are  three 
hundred  ladies  pursuing  medical  studies  at  the  various  schools, 
and  working  side  by  side  with  the  male  students.  The  reason 
of  the  invasion  of  the  Jewess  is,  of  course,  the  disabilities  that 
exist  in  Russia  for  those  of  the  faith  of  Israel  .  .  .  disabilities 
that  are  hardly  lessened  in  Germany.  Moreover,  there  exists 
only  one  university  in  Russia,  and  that  is  in  St.  Petersburg. 
Some  of  the  women  who  graduate  in  medicine  do  extremely  well 
afterwards  in  practice,  and  are  greatly  in  vogue  in  the  highest 
society  in  Paris.  .  .  .  The  lady  doctor  who  is  also  a  Russian 
subject  has  likewise  found  a  field  for  her  energies  in  China, 
where  Russian  influence  is  so  dominant  at  the  present  moment. 

Another  writer,  in  Harper’s  Bazaar,  speaking 
of  girl-students  in  Paris,  has  this  to  say: 

The  Russian  students  are  an  interesting  class  in  Paris.  There 
are  some  one  hundred  and  thirty  of  them  in  all,  nearly  all 
Hebrews,  as  the  Russian  universities  admit  only  about  four  Jews 
to  every  hundred  students.  Their  monthly  allowance  from  their 
families  is  often  no  more  than  twenty  dollars,  and  out  of  that 
they  must  pay  board,  room-rent,  and  all  outside  expenses.  These 
Russian  “  new  women  ”  are  extraordinary  students.  Mile. 
Lepinska,  one  of  the  first  to  graduate  in  medicine,  presented  a 
thesis  six  hundred  and  sixty  pages  long  to  her  astonished 
professors. 

With  pitying  admiration  the  world  looks  on  the 
struggle  for  enlightenment  of  these  brave  sons  and 
daughters  of  Judah.  Their  trials  and  tribulations, 

301 


THE  HASKALAH  MOVEMENT  IN  RUSSIA 


their  heart-burnings  and  disappointments,  have  in¬ 
spired  poets  and  painters,  novelists  and  playwrights. 
From  Chamisso’s  Abba  Glusk  Leczeka  to  Koro¬ 
lenko’s  Skazanye  o  Florye  Rimlyaninye,  czars  have 
died  or  have  been  assassinated,  statesmen  have  risen 
and  fallen,  but  the  Russian  Jew,  like  the  heroes  of 
the  poem  or  novel,  did  not  wait  to  conquer  by  sub¬ 
mitting.  Thanks  to  his  indomitable  spirit  he  has 
made  unexampled  progress.  Within  the  last 
twenty-five  years  he  has  not  only  emancipated  him¬ 
self,  but  he  is  now  the  most  potent  factor  in  the 
struggle  for  the  emancipation  of  his  countrymen. 
Within  these  years  he  has  become  the  recognized 
torch-bearer  of  liberty  and  enlightenment  in  dark¬ 
est  Russia.  Uvarov  justified  his  inhuman  treatment 
of  the  Jews  by  the  plea  that  they  are  “  orthodox 
and  believers  in  the  Talmud.”  The  latest  excuse 
(1904)  of  von  Plehve  was  that  “  if  we  admitted 
Jews  to  our  universities  without  restriction,  they 
would  surpass  our  Russian  students  and  dominate 
our  intellectual  life.”  But  neither  the  former  pre¬ 
vails,  nor  the  latter,  nor  their  henchmen  who  fill 
the  columns  of  the  Grazhdanin,  Kievlyanin,  Novoye 
Vremya,  and  the  like.  The  words  and  writings  of 
such  noble  and  world-famous  Russians  as  Popoff, 
Demidov,  Strogonoff,  Bershadsky,  Shchedrin,  Tol- 

302 


THE  AWAKENING 


stoi,  and  the  cream  of  the  Russian  “  intelligentia,” 
as  well  as  such  foreigners  as  Mommsen,  Gladstone, 
Leroy-Beaulieu,  and  Michael  Davitt,  will  have 
their  salutary  effect.  The  consciousness  of  the 
Russian  people  will  awaken.  The  attitude  lately 
manifested  both  in  St.  Petersburg  and  the  provinces 
against  the  Kontrabandisti,  a  libellous  play  written 
by  an  apostate  Jew,  Levin,  will  become  more  and 
more  general.  Then  the  heroic  effort  and  the  unex¬ 
ampled  progress  of  the  Russian  Jews  will  be  more 
fully  appreciated,  and  a  patriotic  nation  will  grate¬ 
fully  acknowledge  its  indebtedness  to  that  smallest 
but  most  energetic  and  self-sacrificing  portion  of  its 
heterogeneous  population,  the  Jews,  who  have 
done  so  much,  not  only  for  Jewish  Russians,  but  for 
Christian  Russians  as  well,  to  hasten  the  time  when 
“  many  shall  run  to  and  fro,  and  knowledge  shall 
be  increased.” 

[Notes,  pp.  327-330.] 


303 


t 


p.  1 8] 


NOTES 

ABBREVIATIONS  USED  IN  THE  NOTES 

AZJ  =  Allgemeine  Zeitung  des  Judenthums,  Leipsic,  1837 — • 
FKI  =  Funn,  Keneset  Yisrael,  Warsaw,  1860. 

FKN  =^Funn,  Kiryah  Ne’emanah,  Vilna,  1860. 

FSL  —  Fiinn,  Safah  le-Ne’emanim,  Vilna,  1881. 

GMC  ~  Ginzberg  and  Marek,  Yevreyskiya  Narodniya  Pyesni, 
St.  Petersburg,  1901. 

HUH  =  Harkavy,  Ha-Yehudim  u-Sefat  ha-Selavim,  Vilna,  1867. 
JE  —Jewish  Encyclopedia,  12  vols.,  New  York,  1901-1906. 
LBJ  =  Levinsohn,  Bet  Yehudah,  Warsaw,  1901. 

LTI  =  Levinsohn,  Te'udah  be-Yisrael,  Warsaw,  1901. 

WMG  =  Wengeroff,  Memoiren  einer  Grossmutter,  i.,  Berlin,  1908. 

Chapter  I 

THE  PRE-HASKALAH  PERIOD 
?-i648 
(pp.  17-52) 

1  Mention  might,  indeed,  be  made  of  Dr.  Zunz’s  pioneer  work  in 
his  Aelteste  Nachrichten  liber  Juden  und  judische  Gelehrte  in 
Polen,  Slavonien,  Russland  (Gesammelte  Schriften,  Berlin,  1875, 
iii.  82-87),  and  Firkovich,  who,  in  his  Abne  Zikkaron  (Vilna, 
1872),  threw  much  light  on  the  history  of  the  Crimean  Jews. 
The  best  contributions  to  the  subject,  however,  are  those  of 
Harkavy,  Russ  i  Russkiye  v  Sred.  Yevr.  Lit.  (Voskhod,  1881), 
and  Malishevsky,  Yevreyi  v  Yuzhnoy  Rossii  i  Kieve,  v.  x-xii. 
Vyekakh,  St.  Petersburg,  1878. 
aLTI,  p.  33,  n.  2;  LBJ,  ii.  94,  n.  2. 

305 


20 


NOTES 


[pp.  19-23 


3  See  JE,  s.  v.  Azov,  and  Kertch.  See  also  Fishberg,  The  Jews: 
A  Study  of  Race  and  Environment,  New  York,  1911,  pp.  150,  192- 
194. 

4  See  Judah  Halevi’s  Kuzari,  Introduction. 

5  Minor,  Rukovodstvo,  Moscow,  1881,  iv;  Ha-Pardes,  St.  Peters¬ 
burg,  1902,  p.  155. 

6  HUH,  pp.  31-32,  69-76. 

7Yevrey  Minister,  Voskhod,  1885,  v.  105  f. 

8JE,  i.  112,  119,  223;  viii.  652. 

9  The  synagogue  in  Brest-Litovsk,  which  Saul  Wahl  built  in 
memory  of  his  wife  Deborah,  was  demolished  in  1836.  WMG, 
p.  84. 

10  HUH,  pp.  77-134. 

u  JE,  x.  569. 

13  The  story  of  Zacharias  de  Guizolfi  deserves  to  be  given  at 
greater  length.  He  was  a  prince  and  ruler  of  the  Taman  peninsula 
near  the  Black  Sea  (1419).  After  he  had  been  unsuccessful  in 
a  war  against  the  Turks,  Czar  Ivan  III  sent  him  a  message  sealed 
with  the  gold  seal  (March  14,  1484)  as  follows: 

“  By  the  grace  of  God,  the  great  ruler  of  the  Russian  land,  the 
Grand  Duke  Ivan  Vassilyevich,  czar  of  all  the  Russias,  to  Skariya 
the  Hebrew. 

“You  have  written  to  us  through  Gabriel  Patrov,  our  guest, 
that  you  desire  to  come  to  us.  It  is  our  wish  that  you  do  so.  When 
you  are  with  us,  we  shall  give  you  evidence  of  our  favorable  dis¬ 
position  toward  you.  Should  you  wish  to  serve  us,  we  will  confer 
honors  upon  you.  But  should  you  not  wish  to  remain  with  us,  and 
prefer  to  return  to  your  country,  you  shall  be  free  to  go.” 

For  some  reason  or  other,  Zacharias  never  accomplished  his 
contemplated  trip,  notwithstanding  the  many  inducements  re¬ 
peatedly  offered  by  the  czar  during  a  period  of  eighteen  years. 
Perhaps  it  was  because  of  the  disturbances  which  rendered  trans¬ 
portation  dangerous;  possibly  because  he  preferred  to  serve  the 
khan  rather  than  the  czar,  for  we  find  him,  in  1500,  a  resident 
of  Circassia.  See  JE,  vi.  107-108 ;  vi.  12. 

306 


pp.  23-30] 


NOTES 


13  E.  g.  Barakha,  the  hero  (1601),  Ilyash  Karaimovich,  the 
starosta  (1637),  and  Motve  Borokhovich,  the  colonel  (1647).  See 
JE,  ii.  128 ;  iv.  283  ;  ix.  40. 

14  See  Czacki,  Rosprava  o  Zhydakh,  Vilna,  1807,  p.  93;  Buch- 
holtz,  Geschichte  der  Juden  in  Riga,  Riga,  1899,  P-  31  Mann, 
Sheerit  Yisrael,  Vilna,  1818,  ch.  30;  Virga,  Shebet  Yehudah,  Han¬ 
over,  1856,  pp.  147  f.,  and  Graetz,  Geschichte  der  Juden,  ix.  480. 

16  The  Subbotniki,  Dukhobortzi,  and  the  other  dissenting,  but 
non- Jewish,  sects  are  not  referred  to  here,  though  they  may  have 
received  their  inspiration  from  Jews  or  through  Judaism. 

18  Voskhod,  1881,  i.  73-75;  JE,  vii.  487-488;  ix.  570;  Bramson,  K 
Istorii  Pervonachalnaho  Obrazovaniya  Russkikh  Yevreyev,  St. 
Petersburg,  1896,  pp.  4-6. 

17  Sternberg,  Die  Proselyten  im  xvi.  und  xvii.  Jahrhundert, 
AZJ,  1863,  pp.  67-68  (ibid,  in  L’univers  israelite,  1863,  pp.  272 
f.)  ;  Mandelkern,  Dibre  Yeme  Russyah,  Warsaw,  1875,  pp.  231  f. ; 
Yevreyskaya  Enziklopedya,  s.  v.  Zhidostvuyushchikh ;  Bedrzhid- 
sky  in  Zhurnal  Ministerstva  Narodnaho  Prosvyeshchanya,  St. 
Petersburg,  1912,  pp.  106-122;  Jewish  Ledger,  Jan.,  1902,  p.  3; 
Emden,  Megillat  Sefer,  ed.  Cohan,  p.  207,  Warsaw,  1896.  On 
Count  Pototzki,  see  Ger  Zedek,  in  Yevreyskaya  Biblyotyeka,  St. 
Petersburg,  1892;  Gershuni,  Sketches  of  Jewish  Life  and  History, 
New  York,  1873,  pp.  158-224  (also  Introduction),  and  S.  L.  Gor¬ 
don’s  ballad  in  Ha-Shiloah  (Ger  Zedek),  i.  431.  On  Pototzki  and 
Zaremba,  see  Gere  Zedek  (Anon.),  Johannisberg,  1862.  On 
modern  Russian  Gerim,  see  Die  Welt,  July  5,  1907,  pp.  16-17 
(Palestine),  B’nai  B’rith  News,  May  13,  1913  (United  States), 
and  Leroy-Beaulieu,  Israel  among  the  Nations,  Engl,  transl.,  New 
York,  1900,  p.  no,  n.  1;  Yiddishes  Tageblatt,  July  16  and  23, 
1913,  Gerim  in  Russland,  and  Vieder  vegen  Gerim;  JE,  i.  336; 
vii.  369-370,  489. 

18  HUH,  pp.  3,  21  f. ;  Minor,  op.  cit.,  p.  4;  Yevreyskiya  Nadpisi, 

St.  Petersburg,  1884,  p.  217;  Sefer  ha-Yashar,  no.  522;  Eben 
ha-'Ezer,  no.  118.  On  'JVin»  see  Monatsschrift,  xxii. 

5i4« 


307 


NOTES  [pp.  31-38 

19  Catalogue  de  Rossi,  iii.  200;  Ha-Maggid,  i860,  pp.  299-302; 
HUH,  pp.  33,  40. 

20  Autobiography,  p.  39. 

21LBJ,  ii.  95,  n. ;  Ha-'Ibri,  New  York,  viii.,  no.  33;  Lehem  ha- 
Panirri,  Hil.  Nedarim,  no.  228. 

22  Nishmat  Hayyim,  Lemberg,  1858,  p.  83a;  Azulai,  Shem  ha- 
Gedolim,  s.  v.  Horowitz;  FKN,  p.  74,  and  Ha-Maggid,  iii.  159. 
Cf.  Sheerit  Yisrael,  ch.  32,  and  Edelman,  Gedulat  Shaul,  London, 
1854.  Reifman,  in  Lla-Maggid,  claims  that  to  Luria  belongs  the 
honor  of  being  the  first-known  Jewish  author. 

23  See  Zikronot,  ed.  Cohan,  pp.  62-66,  90,  313,  336,  380,  passim; 
Schechter,  Studies  in  Judaism,  Philadelphia,  1908,  ii.  132. 

24  Margoliuth,  Hibbure  Likkutim,  Venice,  1715,  Introduction. 

20  Horowitz,  Frankfurter  Rabbinen,  Frankfort-on-the-Main, 
1883,  pp.  30-35;  FKN,  pp.  73-91;  Emden,  op.  cit.,  p.  125;  and 
biographies. 

^LTI,  ii.  81,  n.;  Hannover,  Yeven  Mezulah,  Warsaw,  1872,  p. 
7b. 

27Zunz,  Literaturgeschichte,  pp.  433-435,  442;  Buber,  Anshe 
Shem,  Cracow,  1895,  pp.  307-309;  Benjacob,  Ozar  ha-Sefarim,  p. 
396;  JE,  xi.  217;  Bikkure  ha-'Ittim,  1830,  p.  43.  Jacob  of  Gnesen, 
I  suspect,  must  have  lived  in  Russia. 

28  Steinschneider,  Jewish  Literature,  pp.  235,  240;  Benjacob,  op. 
cit.,  p.  396. 

29  JE,  xii.  265-266:  “  Enfin  les  incredules  les  plus  determines 

n’ont  presque  rien  allegue  qui  ne  soit  dans  le  Rampart  de  la  Foi 
du  Rabbin  Isaac.” 

30  Nusbaum,  Historya  Zhidov,  i.  p.  180;  Edelman,  op.  cit.,  attri¬ 
butes  the  coming  of  Saul  Wahl  to  this  cause. 

31  The  Elim  (Amsterdam,  1629),  if  not,  as  the  Karaites  main¬ 
tain,  actually  the  work  of  Zerah  Troki,  was  surely  the  result  of 
the  problems  submitted  by  him  to  Delmedigo. 

32  JE,  iv.  504;  vii.  264;  xii.  266;  Ha-Eshkol,  iii.  and  iv.  (R.  M. 
Jaffe)  ;  LTI,  ii.  80;  Benjacob,  op.  cit.,  no.  1428. 

808 


pp-  39-50] 


NOTES 


33Zunz,  Ritus,  Berlin,  1859,  P-  73,  and  Gottesdienstliche  Vortrage, 
Frankfort-on-the-Main,  1892,  p.  452,  n.  a.;  Wessely,  Dibre  Shalom 
we-Emet,  ii.  7;  Benjacob,  op.  cit.,  no.  1187. 

34Voskhod,  1893,  i.  79;  New  Era  Illustrated  Magazine,  v. ; 
FNI,  p.  28  f. ;  JE,  i.  113  ;  ii.  22,  622;  xii.  265. 

35  JE,  vii.  454. 

38  JE,  i.  372;  iv.  140;  Ha-Yekeb,  1894,  p.  68. 

87  Bersohn,  Tobiasz  Cohn,  Warsaw,  1872. 

38  Cf.  FKN,  pp.  38-42  (Vilna  constitution)  ;  Hannover,  op.  cit., 
p.  23a;  Ha-Modia'  la-Hadashim,  II.  i.  11,  and  JE,  s.  vv.  Council, 
Kahal,  Lithuania,  etc. 

39  See  GMC,  pp.  59  f.,  and  compare  with  this  Lermontoff’s 
Cossack  Cradle-Song,  which  may  be  taken  as  a  type: 

Sleep,  my  child,  my  little  darling,  sleep,  I  sing  to  thee; 
Silently  the  soft  white  moonbeams  fall  on  thee  and  me. 

I  will  tell  thee  fairy  stories  in  my  lullaby; 

Sleep,  my  child,  my  pretty  darling,  sleep,  I  sing  to  thee. 

Lo,  I  see  the  day  approaching  when  the  warriors  meet; 

Then  wilt  thou  grasp  thy  rifle  and  mount  thy  charger  fleet. 

I  will  broider  in  thy  saddle  colors  fair  to  see, 

Sleep,  my  child,  my  little  darling,  sleep,  I  sing  to  thee. 

Then  my  Cossack  boy,  my  hero  brave  and  proud  and  gay, 
Waves  one  farewell  to  his  mother  and  rides  far  away. 

Oh,  what  sorrow,  pain  and  anguish  then  my  soul  shall  fill, 

As  I  pray  by  day  and  night  that  God  will  keep  thee  still ! 

Thou  shalt  take  a  saint’s  pure  image  to  the  battlefield, 

Look  upon  it  when  thou  prayest,  may  it  be  thy  shield. 

And  when  battles  fierce  are  raging,  give  one  thought  to  me ; 
Sleep,  my  darling,  calmly,  sweetly,  sleep,  I  sing  to  thee. 

— Westminster  Gazette. 

See  Giidemann,  Quellen  zur  Geschichte  des  Unterrichts,  Ber¬ 
lin,  1891,  pp.  285-286;  Ha-Boker  Or,  i.  315  (on  Dubno)  ;  Ha- 
Meliz,  1894,  no.  254  (on  Mohilev)  ;  Zunz,  Gottesdienstliche  Vor¬ 
trage,  pp.  i22g  and  470a;  cf.  Weiss,  Zikronotai',  Warsaw, 
1S95,  PP-  53-83- 


309 


NOTES 


[pp.  51-60 


41  Cf.  Giidemann,  Geschichte  des  Erziehungswesens,  iii.  94,  n., 
and  see  Dembitzer,  Kelilat  Yofi,  Introduction,  and  Meassef,  St. 
Petersburg,  1902,  p.  205,  n. 

Chapter  II 

DAYS  OF  TRANSITION 
1648-1794 
(pp.  53-109) 

JJE,  s.  v.  Bratzlav. 

2  In  the  diary  of  a  Polish  squire  we  find  the  following  item: 

“Jan.  5.  As  the  lessee  Herszka  had  not  yet  paid  me  the 

rental  of  91  gulden,  I  went  to  his  house  to  get  my  debt.  Accord¬ 
ing  to  the  contract,  I  can  arrest  him  and  his  wife  for  as  long  as 
I  wish,  until  he  settles  the  bill,  and  so  I  ordered  him  locked  up  in 
the  pig-sty  and  left  his  wife  and  his  sons  in  the  inn.  The  young¬ 
est  son,  however,  I  took  with  me  to  the  palace  to  be  instructed 
in  the  rudiments  of  our  religion.  The  boy  is  unusually  bright 
and  shall  be  baptized.  I  already  wrote  to  our  priest  concerning 
it,  and  he  promised  to  come  to  prepare  him.  Leisza  at  first 
stubbornly  refused  to  make  the  sign  of  the  cross  and  repeat  our 
prayers,  but  Strelicki  administered  a  sound  whipping,  and  to-day 
he  even  ate  ham.  Our  venerable  priest  Bonapari  ...  is  inventing 
all  manner  of  means  to  break  his  stiff-neckedness.”  Meassef,  St. 
Petersburg,  1902,  pp.  192-193. 

3  See  Wolkonsky,  Pictures  of  Russian  History  and  Literature, 
Boston,  1897,  p.  136. 

4  Orshansky,  in  Yevreyskaya  Biblyotyeka,  ii.  207. 

“Meassef,  St.  Petersburg,  1902,  p.  195;  Beck  and  Brann, 
Yevreyskaya  Istoriya,  p.  326;  JE,  iv.  155;  xi.  113. 

6  Meassef,  p.  200.  On  Russia  at  the  time  of  Peter  the  Great,  see 
Macaulay,  History  of  England,  ch.  xxiii.,  where  he  describes 
the  “savage  ignorance  and  the  squalid  poverty  of  the  barbarous 
country.”  In  that  country  “  there  was  neither  literature  nor 
science,  neither  school  nor  college.  It  was  not  till  more  than  a 

810 


pp.  62-71] 


NOTES 


hundred  years  after  the  invention  of  printing  that  a  single  print¬ 
ing-press  had  been  introduced  into  the  Russian  empire,  and  that 
printing-press  speedily  perished  in  a  fire,  which  was  supposed  to 
have  been  kindled  by  priests.”  When  Pyoter  Vyeliki  (Peter  the 
Great),  while  in  London,  saw  the  archiepiscopal  library,  he 
declared  that  “  he  had  never  imagined  that  there  were  so  many 
printed  volumes  in  the  world.”  See  also  Carlyle,  History  of 
Frederick  the  Great,  iv.  7. 

7  FKN,  pp.  126-132;  Voskhod,  1893;  on  the  Hasidim  and 
Mitnaggedim  see  below. 

8Ma'aseh  Tobiah,  p.  18;  Meassef,  pp.  206-209;  Geiger  (Melo 
Hofnayim,  Berlin,  1840,  pp.  1-29)  published  Delmedigo’s  cor¬ 
roboration  of  this  statement. 

9Rapoport,  Etan  ha-'Ezrahi,  Ostrog,  1776,  Introduction. 

10  Cf.  Zederbaum,  Keter  Kehunnah,  pp.  72-74,  84,  121,  etc.,  and 
Ha-Shiloah,  xxi.  165;  Schechter,  Studies  in  Judaism,  i.,  Phila¬ 
delphia,  1896,  i.  1 7  f.,  and  Greenstone,  The  Messiah  Idea  in 
Jewish  History,  pp.  237  f.  According  to  some,  Judah  he-Hasid 
and  his  followers  went  to  Palestine  in  the  expectation,  not  of  the 
Messiah,  but  of  Shabbata'i  Zebi,  who  was  believed  to  have  been  in 
hiding  for  forty  years,  in  imitation  of  the  retirement  of  Moses  in 
Midian  for  a  similar  period  of  years.  “The  ruins  of  Rabbi  Judah 
he-Hasid’s  synagogue  ”  and  Yeshibah  in  Jerusalem  still  keep  the 
memory  of  the  event  fresh  in  the  minds  of  Palestinian  Jews. 

11  Among  the  many  wonderful  episodes  in  the  life  of  the  master, 
his  biographer  mentions  also  that  he  could  swallow  down  the 
largest  gobletful  in  a  single  gulp  (Shibhe  ha-Besht,  Berdichev, 
1815,  pp.  7-8).  The  best,  though  not  an  impartial  work  on  Hasid¬ 
ism  is  ZweifePs  Shalom  'al  Yisrael,  4  vols.,  Zhitomir,  1868-1872. 

12  Ha-Boker  Or,  iv.  103-105:  niDUpBKn  \D  niWJ  tbvQ  Jim 

13  Cf.  Emden,  op.  cit.,  p.  185,  and  Shimush,  Amsterdam,  1785,  pp. 
78-80,  with  Pardes,  ii.  204-214. 

u  See  Schechter,  op.  cit.,  pp.  73-93;  Silber,  Elijah  Gaon,  1906; 
Levin,  'Aliyat  Eliyahu,  Vilna,  1856,  and  FKN,  pp.  133-155. 

15  Levin,  op.  cit.,  pp.  28-30. 


311 


NOTES 


[pp.  73-86 


18  See  Ha-Bikkurim,  i.  1-26;  ii.  1-20;  Ha-Zeman  (monthly), 
1903,  ii.  6;  Plungian,  Ben  Porat,  Vilna,  1858,  p.  33;  Keneset 
Yisrael,  iii.  152  seq. 

17  Sirkes  (Bayit  Hadash,  Cracow,  1631,  p.  40)  decides  that 
Jews  may  employ  in  their  synagogue  melodies  used  in  the  church, 
since  “music  is  neither  Jewish  nor  Christian,  but  is  governed  by 
universal  laws.”  See  also  Hayyim  ben  Bezalel’s  Wikkuah 
Mayim  Hayyim,  Introduction,  and  passim. 

18  See  J.  S.  Raisin,  Sect,  Creed  and  Custom  in  Judaism,  Phila¬ 
delphia,  1907,  p.  9,  and  ch.  viii. ;  Ha-Meliz,  x.  186,  192-194. 

19  See  Ha-Zeman  (monthly),  1903,  ii.  7.;  Shklov,  Euclidus,  In¬ 
troduction;  Keneset  Yisrael,  1887,  and  Hagra  on  Orah  Hayyim, 
Shklov,  1803,  Introduction. 

20  See  Graetz,  op.  cit.,  xi.  590,  604,  606.  The  Gaon,  who  as  a 
rule  was  very  mild,  lost  patience  with  the  Hasidim  and  wielded 
the  weapons  of  the  kuni  (or  stocks  and  exposures)  and  excom¬ 
munication  without  mercy.  The  Hasidim  were  also  accused  of 
being  not  only  religious  dissenters  but  revolutionaries.  Zeitlin, 
quoted  in  Yiddishes  Tageblatt,  from  the  Moment,  March,  1913. 

21  See  Karpeles,  Time  of  Mendelssohn,  p.  297 ;  Kayserling,  Men¬ 
delssohn,  p.  12;  Ha-Meliz,  1900,  nos.  194-196. 

22  Epstein,  Geburat  ha-Ari,  Vilna,  1870,  p.  29;  Rabinovich, 
Zunz,  Warsaw,  1896;  Wessely,  op.  cit.,  ii.;  Linda,  Reshit  Limmu- 
dim,  Berlin,  1789,  and  Ha-Zeman  (monthly),  ii.  28. 

23  Delitzsch,  Zur  Geschichte  der  jiidischen  Poesie,  Leipsic,  1836, 
p.  1 1 8 ;  Bernfeld,  Dor  Tahapukot,  Warsaw,  1897,  PP*  88  f.  Dubno 
also  edited  Luzzatto’s  La-Yesharim  Tehillah,  which,  according  to 
Slouschz,  marks  the  beginning  of  the  renaissance  in  Hebrew 
belles-lettres. 

21  Published  in  Berlin  in  1793.  It  was  translated  into  English 
by  Murray  (Solomon  Maimon,  Boston,  1888)  and  into  Hebrew 
by  Taviov  (Warsaw,  1899). 

'“Bernfeld,  op.  cit.,  ii.  66  f.  JE,  s.  v.  Maimon;  and  Autobi¬ 
ography  (Engl,  transl.),  p.  217.  For  Maimon’s  system  of  philos¬ 
ophy  and  also  for  a  complete  bibliography  of  his  writings,  see 

312 


pp.  87-104] 


NOTES 


Kunz,  Die  Philosophie  Salomon  Maimons,  Heidelberg,  1912,  pp. 
xxv,  531. 

36  Wolff,  Maimoniana,  Berlin,  1813,  p.  177. 

27  How  touching  and  suggestive  is  the  word  '252*  in  an  acrostic 
at  the  end  of  his  Introduction  to  his  Gibe'at  ha-Moreh,  a  com¬ 
mentary  on  the  Moreh  Nebukim: 

'lintf  KTlp 

'na  Dsn  inn 
v'np  rhvi  ‘■pnnnra 

28  See  Murray’s  Introduction  to  the  Autobiography;  Auerbach, 
Dichter  und  Kaufmann ;  Zangwill,  Nathan  the  Wise  and  Solomon 
the  Fool. 

29  FKI,  p.  196. 

30Maggid,  Toledot  Mishpehot  Ginzberg,  pp.  52-53;  Emden, 
Sheelat  Ya'abez,  Altona,  1739,  p.  65  a. 

31FKN,  pp.  109-114,  269;  FKI,  p.  300. 

32  FKI,  p.  394;  Delitzsch,  op.  cit.,  p.  84. 

33L’univers  israelite,  liii.  831-841:  “  C’est,  vous  le  voyez, 

un  juif  polonais  qui  contribua  puissamment  a  l’emancipation  des 
juifs  de  France.  Et  je  me  demande  si  le  Judaisme  du  monde 
entier  ne  doit  pas  rendre  hommage  a  notre  coreligionnaire  polon¬ 
ais  autant  peut-etre  qu’  a  Menasse  ben  Israel.”  FKI,  p.  333;  Ha- 
Meliz,  ii.  no.  50;  Shulammit,  iii.  425;  Graetz,  op.  cit.  (Engl, 
transl.),  v.  443. 

34  See  Berliner,  Festschrift,  1903,  pp.  1-4. 

35  See  Ha-Meliz,  viii.  nos.  11,  22,  23;  FSL,  p.  139;  Monats- 
schrift,  xxiv,  348-357. 

30  Delitzsch,  op.  cit.,  pp.  115-118;  Ha-Zeman  (monthly),  ii.  23  f. 

37  See  Meassef,  1788,  p.  32,  and  Levin’s  ed.  of  Moreh  Nebukim, 
Zolkiev,  1829,  Introduction. 

38  Ha-Meassef,  1809,  pp.  68-75,  136-171. 

39  See  Sefer  ha-Berit,  Introduction,  and  Weissberg,  Aufklar- 
ungsliteratur,  Vienna,  1898,  p.  83. 

40  FKI,  p.  428. 


813 


NOTES 


[pp.  105-118 


41  See  Emden,  Torat  ha-Kenaot,  pp.  123-127,  and  Hitabkut 
(Pinczov’s  letters)  ;  Voskhod,  1882,  nos.  viii-ix;  FSL,  pp.  136-137; 
Friedrichsfeld,  Zeker  Zaddik,  p.  12. 

42  Maimon,  Autobiography,  pp.  106-107;  FSL,  p.  135. 

43  See  LTI,  ii.  96,  n.  1,  and  Yellin  and  Abrahams,  Maimonides, 
p.  160,  and  reference  on  p.  330,  n.  72;  Ha-Zeman  (monthly), 
i.  102-103 ;  Margolioth,  Bet  Middot,  p.  20.  Heine’s  admir¬ 
ation  for  these  idealists  or  those  who  succeeded  them  is  well 
worth  quoting.  In  his  essay  on  Poland,  he  says:  “In  spite 
of  the  barbaric  fur  cap  which  covers  his  head  and  the  even  more 
barbaric  ideas  which  fill  it,  I  value  the  Polish  Jew  much  more 
than  many  a  German  Jew  with  his  Bolivar  on  his  head  and  his 
Jean  Paul  inside  of  it  ...  .  The  Polish  Jew  in  his  unclean  furred 
coat,  with  his  populous  beard  and  his  smell  of  garlic  and  his 
Jewish  jargon,  is  nevertheless  dearer  to  me  than  many  a  West¬ 
erner  in  all  the  glory  of  his  stocks  and  bonds.” 

44  Op.  cit.  Letter  ii. 

^Likkute  Kadmoniot,  Vilna,  i860,  Introduction. 

Chapter  III 

THE  DAWN  OF  HASKALAH 
1794-1840 
(pp.  110-161) 

1  See  Orshansky,  in  Yevreyskaya  Biblyotyeka,  ii.  240;  Drabkin, 
in  Monatsschrift,  xix-xx. 

‘  FKN,  pp.  27,  303. 

SJE,  iv.  301;  Plungian,  op.  cit.,  p.  59. 

4  FKN,  p.  193. 

CJE,  iv.  407. 

6  FKN,  p.  193;  Jellinek,  Kuntres  ha-Rambam,  pp.  39  f. 

7  Occident,  v.  360. 

8Jost,  Culturgeschichte,  Berlin,  1847,  p.  302. 

9  Steinschneider,  'Ir  Vilna,  1900,  p.  146. 

10  Voskhod,  1881,  ii.  29-30;  1900,  p.  55. 

314 


pp. 119-132] 


NOTES 


UFKN,  pp.  277-279. 

12  See  Rabinovitz,  Ma’amar  'al  ha-Defosat  ha-Talmud,  Munich, 
1876,  p.  1 12.  Cf.  Zweifel,  op.  cit.,  iv.  7. 

13  FKN,  pp.  277-279. 

14  Toledot  Adam,  pp.  14  b,  16  b,  24  b,  75  b,  84  a. 

15  See  Plungian,  op  cit.,  pp.  46-47,  91;  Yoskhod,  1900,  ix.  77; 
Ha-Zeman  (monthly),  1903,  iii.  22-30;  see  also  Die  Zukunft,  New 
York,  July,  1913,  pp.  713  f. 

18  Voskhod,  Dec.,  1890,  pp.  142  f. ;  Ha-Boker  Or,  Jan.,  1881. 

17  Voskhod,  1888,  iii.  37  f ;  Rodkinson,  Toledot  'Ammude  Ha- 
BaD. 

18  Cohan,  Rabbi  Yisrael  Ba'al  Shem  Tob,  1900,  p.  67. 

19 'Ammude  Bet  Yehudah,  xxvii.,  and  see  Ha-Zeman  (monthly), 
ii.  8-15. 

20  Buchholtz,  op.  cit.,  Beilage  14,  pp.  137-138. 

21  See  Weissberg,  op.  cit.,  p.  53 ;  Talmud  Leshon  Russiah, 
Vilna,  1825;  Moda'  li-Bene  Binah,  ibid.,  1826;  cf.  Baer  Heteb, 
Introduction. 

22  Helel  ben  Shahar,  Warsaw,  1804,  Introduction,  and  p.  81. 
See  Peri  ha-Arez  Yashan,  Letter  2,  quoted  by  Dubnow,  Pardes,  ii. 
210-21 1. 

2SKeneset  Yisrael,  i.  138;  Morgulis,  Voprosi  Yevreyskoy  Zhizni, 
pp.  7-10. 

24  Enziklopedichesky  Slovar,  St.  Petersburg,  1895,  xvii.  642. 

25Ha-Shahar,  x.  44-52;  FKN,  p.  33;  Ha-Boker  Or,  i.  145-146. 

28  FSL,  p.  164. 

27  See  Giinzburg,  Ha-Debir,  Warsaw,  1883,  ii.  55;  Israelitische 
Annalen,  1840,  p.  263. 

28  Ha-Zeman  (monthly),  iii.  10. 

29  Minor,  op.  cit.,  p.  46;  Lerner,  Yevreyi  v  Novorossiskom  Kraye, 
Odessa,  1901,  p.  234;  Monatsschrift,  xviii.  234!.,  477  f.,  551  f. 

80  Voskhod,  1881,  i-iii;  Ha-Zeman  (monthly),  iii.  11-14. 

81  Op.  cit.,  pp.  208-209. 

32  Cf.  Graetz,  xi.  50;  Kayserling,  op.  cit.,  p.  288;  Fiinn,  Sofre 
Yisrael,  Vilna,  1891,  pp.  138-143;  WMG,  p.  135. 

315 


NOTES  [pp.  132-139 

33  Graetz,  xi.  590,  604,  606;  Annalen,  xx.  467;  Kayserling,  op. 
cit.,  p.  307;  Landshut,  Toledot  Anshe  Shem,  p.  85. 

84  T  iwn  Sfct  Y'D*»  naon.  Weiss,  Zikronotai,  p.  58,  n.;  Ha- 
Zeman  (monthly),  i.  and  iii.  18-19. 

s5Zweifel,  op.  cit.,  pp.  35-40,  and  Ha-Hasidut  we-ha-Musar  in 
Ha-Meliz,  1897;  Toledot  Mishpehot  Shneersohn,  in  Ha-Asif,  v. 
35-40,  and  Nefesh  Hayyim,  iii.  3. 

36  Mandelkern,  Dibre  Yeme  Russyah,  iii.  98;  American  Israelite, 
nos.  15,  18,  etc.  (My  Travels  in  Russia)  ;  Gordon,  Ha-Azamot 
ha-Yebashot,  Odessa,  1899;  AZJ,  1854,  p.  22;  Zunser,  Biography, 
New  York,  1905,  pp.  15-19  (Engl,  transl.,  pp.  14-18);  Shenot 
Ra’inu  Ra'ah,  in  Ha-Meliz,  i860;  Sefer  ha-Shanah,  iii.  82-101, 
and  GMC,  nos.  43-50.  One  of  these  songs  runs  as  follows: 

On  the  streets  in  tears  we’re  wading, 

In  our  bairns’  blood  we  might  be  bathing; 

What  a  misfortune,  ah,  wellaway — 

Will  never  dawn  the  better  day? 

Little  infants  from  heder  are  torn, 

And  forced  to  wear  the  soldier’s  uniform; 

What  a  misfortune,  etc. 

Our  leaders,  rabbis,  and  honored  elders, 

E’en  help  to  impress  them  for  the  czar’s  soldiers; 

What  a  misfortune,  etc. 

Seven  sons  has  Zushe  Rakover, 

Yet  not  a  one  for  the  army  is  over; 

What  a  misfortune,  etc. 

Leah,  the  widow,  has  an  only  son, 

And  for  the  kahal’s  sins  he*s  gone ; 

What  a  misfortune,  etc. 


316 


pp. 141-161] 


NOTES 


37  GMC,  no.  42.  On  similar  enthusiasm  among  the  Galician 
Maskilim,  see  Erter,  Kol  Kore,  in  Ha-Zofeh  le-Bet  Yisrael,  War¬ 
saw,  1890,  pp.  131-133- 

3S  Elk,  Die  judischen  Kolonien  in  Russland,  Frankfort-on-the- 
Main,  1886,  pp.  28-53,  60-80,  119-140,  153-160,  205-208;  Jastrow, 
Beleuchtungen,  etc.,  Hamburg,  1859,  pp.  109-113. 

39  See  Zunz,  Gesammelte  Schriften,  Berlin,  1875,  pp.  279-290; 
Jost,  Freimiithige  Beleuchtung,  Berlin,  1830;  and  Culturgeschichte, 
pp.  302-303. 

40  Rabinovitz,  op.  cit.,  pp.  n-18. 

41  On  Volozhin,  see  Ha-Kerem,  1887,  pp.  67-77;  Bikkurim,  1865, 
pp.  6-45;  Ozar  ha-Sifrut,  iii. ;  Ha-Asif,  iii. ;  Ha-Meliz,  1900,  nos. 
16-18;  Schechter,  op.  cit.,  i.  93-98;  Horowitz,  Derek  'Ez  ha-Hay- 
yim,  Cracow,  1895.  The  yeshibah  was  reopened  under  the  dean- 
ship  of  Rabbi  Raphael  Shapira  of  Bobruisk,  and  still  exists, 
though  in  a  rather  precarious  condition. 

43  Read  the  vivid  description  in  WMG,  p.  147. 

43  Occident,  ii.  563-564. 

44  Uvarov’s  opinion  of  the  Talmud  was  “  razvrashchal  i  raz- 
vrashchayet  ”  (“it  has  been  degrading  and  is  degrading”). 
Nicholas  granted  special  privileges  to  the  Karaites,  and  claimed 
they  were  the  genuine  Israelites,  chiefly  because  they  did  not 
follow  the  precepts  of  the  Talmud. 

45  Occident,  ii.  562-563. 

46  See  Loewe,  Diaries  of  Sir  Moses  and  Lady  Montefiore,  Lon¬ 
don,  1890,  i.  100,  231,  3 1 1-3 12,  passim;  Giinzburg,  Debir,  ii.  99- 
108;  [Dick],  Ha-Oreah,  Konigsberg,  i860. 

47  Giinzburg,  op.  cit.,  pp.  115-117,  122-125 ;  Leket  Amarim 
(suppl.  to  Ha-Meliz),  St.  Petersburg,  1887,  PP-  81-86;  AZJ,  ix. 
nos.  46-50;  x.  nos.  5,  49,  etc.;  Jastrow,  op.  cit.,  p.  12,  Lubliner, 
De  la  condition  politique  ....  dans  le  royaume  de  Pologne, 
Brussels,  i860  (especially  pp.  44-45). 

4-GMC,  no.  255. 


317 


NOTES 


[pp.  162-166 


Chapter  IV 

CONFLICTS  AND  CONQUESTS 
1840-1855 
(pp.  16*2-221) 

1  Diakov  states  that  “  when  the  population  degenerated  in  West 
Russia,  business  and  industry  declined,  and  the  number  of  the 
rich  greatly  diminished,  while  the  nobles,  embittered  against  the 
Government,  did  absolutely  nothing  for  their  country,  the  Jews 
formed  an  exception  ....  There  is  no  doubt  that  they  are  doing 
their  utmost  for  the  regeneration  of  our  land,  despite  the  re¬ 
strictions  heaped  upon  them  without  any  cause  ”  (Elk,  op.  cit.,  p. 
41  seq.).  Surovyetsky  likewise  maintains  that  “after  the  devas¬ 
tation  of  Poland  because  of  the  numerous  wars,  the  ruining  of  so 
many  cities,  and  the  almost  total  extermination  of  their  inhabi¬ 
tants  ....  the  Jews  alone  effected  the  regeneration  of  our  trade. 
They  alone  upheld  our  tottering  industries  ....  We  may  safely 
affirm  that  without  them,  without  their  characteristic  mobility, 
we  should  never  have  recovered  our  commerce  and  wealth”  (Jas- 
trow,  op.  cit.,  p.  12). 

2  See  AZJ,  April  29,  1844,  and  Orient,  1844,  p.  224,  in  which 
the  correspondent  adds:  “It  is  a  touching  sight  to  see  these 
laborers  [as  longshoremen],  for  the  most  part  aged,  perform  their 
fatiguing  duties  in  the  streets  during  the  hottest  seasons,  endeavor¬ 
ing  to  lighten  their  heavy  burdens  by  the  repetition  of  Biblical 
and  Talmudic  passages.” 

3Ozar  ha-Sifrut,  1877;  Annalen,  1839,  pp.  345-346,  and  1841, 
no.  31.  Bikkure  ha-'Ittim,  1821,  pp.  168-172;  FSL,  p.  150;  Pap- 
erna,  Ha-Derammah  (Eichenbaum’s  letter)  ;  Ha-Boker  Or,  1879, 
pp.  691-698;  Occident,  v.  255;  Pirhe  Zafon,  ii.  216-217;  Ha- 
Maggid,  1863,  p.  348;  Orient,  1841,  p.  266;  Lapin,  Keset  ha- 
Sofer,  Berlin,  1857,  P*  8,  and  Morgulis,  op.  cit.,  p.  48. 

4Jost,  Culturgeschichte,  pp.  308-309;  Morgulis,  op.  cit.,  p.  27; 
Atlas,  Mah  Lefanim  u-mah  Leaher,  Warsaw,  1898,  pp.  44  f. 

318 


pp.  167-185] 


NOTES 


5  Sbornik  of  the  Minister  of  Education,  iii.  140;  Ha-Shahar, 
iv.  569. 

'  See  An  die  Verehrer,  Freunde  und  Schuler,  etc.,  Leipsic,  1823, 
pp.  122-125. 

7  Ueber  die  Verbesserung  der  Israeliten  im  Konigreich  Polen, 
Berlin,  1819. 

8Zunz,  Gesammelte  Schriften,  pp.  296-297;  Jost,  op.  cit.,  p.  304; 
Jastrow,  op.  cit.,  pp.  41  f. ;  and  Zederbaum,  Kohelet,  St.  Peters¬ 
burg,  1881,  p.  6. 

9  Occident,  v.  493. 

10  Maggid  Yeshu’ah,  Vilna,  September,  1842.  It  is  reproduced, 
together  with  many  Haskalah  reminiscences,  by  Gottlober  in  Ha- 
Boker  Or,  iv.  (Ha-Gizrah  we-ha-Binyah) .  According  to  Gott¬ 
lober  the  Hebrew  is  Fiinn’s  translation  from  the  original  German. 
Yet  Hebrew  letters  (Leket  Amarim,  St.  Petersburg,  1888)  were 
published  in  LilienthaPs  name. 

11  See  AZJ,  1842,  no.  41 ;  Mandelstamm,  Hazon  la-Moed,  Vienna, 
1877,  pp.  19,  21,  25-27;  Leket  Amarim,  pp.  86-89;  Kohelet,  p.  12; 
Morgulis,  op.  cit.,  p.  55;  Ha-Pardes,  pp.  186-199;  Nathanson, 
Sefer  ha-Zikronot,  Warsaw,  1878,  p.  70;  Lilienthal,  in  Amer¬ 
ican  Israelite,  1854  (My  Travels  in  Russia),  and  Jiidisches 
Volksblatt,  1856  (Meine  Reisen  in  Russland),  and  Der  Zeitgeist, 
1882,  p.  149. 

12  Occident,  v.  252,  296. 

“WMG,  pp.  185-200;  AZJ,  1844,  PP*  75>  247»  1845,  PP*  3°4" 
305;  1846,  p.  18;  American  Israelite,  i.  156. 

14  Rede,  etc.,  Riga,  1840,  p.  5. 

15  Ha-Pardes,  i.  202-203.  See  Bramson,  op.  cit.,  pp.  26-27; 
WMG,  p.  118. 

18  Ha-Kokabim,  1868,  pp.  61-78;  Ha-Kerem,  1887,  pp.  41-62; 
Zweifel,  op.  cit.,  pp.  55-56. 

11  Ha-Mizpah,  1882,  p.  17;  Kohelet,  p.  16;  Sbornik  of  the  Min¬ 
ister  of  Education,  1840,  pp.  340,  436-437,  and  Supplement,  pp. 
35-38;  Prelooker,  Under  the  Czar  and  Queen  Victoria,  London, 
pp.  4-5;  cf.  AZJ,  1846,  p.  86. 

18  Elk,  op.  cit.,  ch.  iii. 


319 


NOTES 


[pp.  185-190 


“Occident,  v.  493;  Nathanson,  Sefat  Emet,  p.  92;  Mandel- 
stamm,  op.  cit.,  pp.  31-32,  and  Morgulis,  op.  cit.,  pp.  102-147. 

On  tax  collectors,  cf.  the  English  ballad  quoted  by  Macaulay 
(History  of  England,  ch.  iii.) : 

Like  plundering  soldiers  they’d  enter  the  door, 

And  made  a  distress  on  the  goods  of  the  poor, 

While  frightened  poor  children  distractedly  cried; 

This  nothing  abated  their  insolent  pride. 

And  the  Yiddish  folk  song  (GMC,  no.  55)  : 

The  excise  young  fellows, 

They  are  tremendously  wild: 

They  shave  their  beards, 

And  ride  on  horses, 

Wear  overshoes, 

And  eat  with  unwashed  hands. 

Their  lack  of  confidence  in  the  permanence  of  the  schools  is 
expressed  in  the  following  song  (GMC,  no.  53)  : 

May  we  soon  be  released  from  the  Jewish  Goless, 

When  we  shall  be  expelled  from  the  Gentile  Shcoless  (schools). 

On  the  struggle  to  retain  the  so-called  Jewish  mode  of  dress, 
see  I.  M.  D[ick],  Die  Yiddishe  Kleider  Umwechslung,  Vilna, 
1844. 

i0Op.  cit.,  pp.  12-13;  cf.  Letteris,  in  Moreh  Nebuke  ha-Zeman, 
Introduction,  pp.  xv-xvi ;  Bramson,  op.  cit.,  pp.  34-35,  43-44,  and 
Levanda,  Ocherki  Proshlaho,  St.  Petersburg,  1876. 

21  Cf.  Buckle,  History  of  Civilization,  New  York,  1880,  ii.  529- 
538. 

23  “  Fifty  years  ago,”  says  Mr.  Rubinow  (Bulletin  of  the  Bu¬ 
reau  of  Labor,  no.  72,  Washington,  Sept.,  1907,  p.  578),  “the 
educational  standard  of  the  [Russian]  Jews  was  higher  than  that 
of  the  Russian  people  at  large  is  at  present.” 

23  Mandelkern,  op.  cit.,  iii.  33. 

320 


pp.  190-199] 


NOTES 


^Buckle,  op.  cit.,  pp.  140-142,  notes  33-37. 

25  The  same  phenomenon  was  witnessed  to  a  certain  extent  also 
in  Galicia,  where  for  a  while  Haskalah  flourished  in  great  splen¬ 
dor.  There,  too,  the  charm  and  fecundity  of  German  literature, 
the  similarity  of  Yiddish  to  German,  and  the  privileges  the  Aus¬ 
trian  Government  accorded  them,  proved  too  strong  a  temptation 
for  the  Jews,  and  many  of  those  who  became  enlightened  were 
rapidly  assimilated  with  their  Gentile  countrymen.  While,  there¬ 
fore,  in  Galicia  the  Haskalah  movement  lasted  longer  than  in 
Germany,  it  had  ceased  long  before  it  reached  its  fullest  develop¬ 
ment  in  Russia.  Austrian  civilization  accelerated  the  assimila¬ 
tion  of  the  educated,  Polish  prejudice  retarded  the  progress  of 
the  masses.  So  that  though  Erter,  Letteris,  Krochmal,  Golden- 
berg,  Mieses,  Rapoport,  Perl,  and  Schorr  exerted  a  great  in¬ 
fluence  in  Russia,  their  own  country  remained  unaffected.  Many 
of  them,  like  A.  Peretz,  Eichenbaum,  Feder,  Pinsker,  Werbel,  and 
Rosenfeld  emigrated  to  Russia,  where  they  found  a  wider  field 
for  their  activities,  while  others,  like  Professor  Ludwig  Gum- 
plowicz,  the  sociologist,  Marmorek,  the  physician,  and  Scheps,  the 
litterateur,  became  alienated  from  their  former  coreligionists. 

26  Keneset  Yisrael,  iii.  84;  Gottlober,  Za'ar  Ba'ale  Hayyim, 
Zhitomir,  1868:  anjm  'pbj  o  (  comp.  Ps.  xlii,  and  Shir  ha- 
Kabod,  last  verse). 

27  Occident,  v.  243.  Cf.  Buchholtz,  op.  cit.,  pp.  82-116. 

28  Occident,  v.  255;  Yevreyskaya  Biblyotyeka,  ii.  207-210. 

23 1840,  no.  9. 

*°  Emden,  Megillat  Sefer,  p.  5;  Giinzburg,  Debir,  ii.  105-106; 
Mandelstamm,  op.  cit.,  i.  3-4,  11;  Annalen,  1841,  no.  31. 

31 FKN,  pp.  246-247 ;  Giinzburg,  op.  cit.,  i.  48.  Moses  Reines 
also  points  out  the  fact  that  the  prominent  rabbis  did  not  with¬ 
hold  their  approval  of  the  most  typical  Haskalah  works  when 
their  authors  were  not  suspected  of  heresy,  as  shown  by  Abele’s 
haskamah  on  Levinsohn’s  Te'udah  be-Yisrael,  Tiktin’s  on  Giinz- 
burg’s  Toledot  ha-Arez,  and  Malbim’s  on  Zweifel’s  Sanegor 
(Ozar  ha-Sifrut,  1888,  p.  61). 


21 


321 


NOTES 


[pp.  202-231 


“Ha-Boker  Or,  1879,  no.  4;  FKI,  pp.  537-538,  1132;  Ha-Leb- 
anon,  1872,  no.  35;  Ha-Zefirah,  1879,  no.  9;  Jewish  Chronicle, 
May  4,  1877;  Keneset  Yisrael,  1887,  pp.  157-162;  Ha-Meliz,  ix. 
(1889),  nos.  198-199,  201,  232;  Jost,  op.  cit.,  p.  305.  Da'at 
Kedoshim,  St.  Petersburg,  1897,  pp.  19,  22,  27. 

33  These  biographical  sketches,  first  published  respectively  in 
the  New  Era  Illustrated  Magazine  (1905,  pp.  387-396)  and  the 
American  Israelite  (April  25,  1907),  are  drawn  from  the  follow¬ 
ing  sources;  Houzner,  I.  B.  Levinsohn  (Russian),  Odessa,  1862; 
Nathanson,  Sefer  ha-Zikronot  (Heb.),  Warsaw,  1878;  Yiddishe 
Bibliotek  (Yid.),  Kiev,  1888;  also  Annalen,  1839,  no.  17;  Ha- 
Maggid,  1863,  p.  381;  Ha-Zefirah,  1900,  p.  197;  Maggid,  op.  cit., 
pp.  86-115;  Giinzburg,  Debir,  i.  and  ii.,  Warsaw,  1883;  Kiryat 
Sefer,  Vilna,  1835  (esp.  Letters  85-93,  101-102)  ;  Abi'ezer,  Vilna, 
1863;  Lebensohn,  Kiryat  Soferim,  Vilna,  1847;  Pardes,  i.  192; 
Recke  und  Napyersky,  Allgemeines  Schriftsteller  und  Gelehrten 
Lexicon  der  Provinzen  Livland,  Esthland  und  Kurland,  Mitau, 
1829,  pp.  147-148;  and  the  works  referred  to  in  the  text. 

Chapter  V 

RUSSIFICATION,  REFORMATION,  AND  ASSIMILATION 

1856-1881 
(pp.  222-267) 

1  San  Donato,  The  Jewish  Question,  St.  Petersburg,  1883,  p.  36. 

2  Ha-Meliz,  1888,  nos.  95,  163;  Gordon,  Iggerot,  Warsaw,  1894, 
ii.,  and  Russky  Vyestnik,  1858,  i.  126. 

3  Scholz,  Die  Juden  in  Russland,  Berlin,  1900,  pp.  102-107 ; 
Hessen,  Galeriya,  p.  23;  Voskhod,  1881,  v.  1893;  viii ;  Russky 
Yevrey,  1882,  i. 

4  Second  Complete  Russian  Code,  xxv,  nos.  24,  768 ;  xxvii.  nos. 
26,  508. 

8  Voskhod,  October,  1881;  Chwolson,  Die  Blutanklage,  Frank- 
fort-on-the-Main,  1901,  p.  117. 

®Zunser,  Biography,  p.  28. 


322 


pp.  231-248] 


NOTES 


TKol  Shire  Mahallalel,  i.  79-91. 

8  Kol  Shire  YeLeG,  i.  43. 

9Bramson,  op.  cit.,  pp.  52-54;  Russky  Yevrey,  1879,  nos.  16-17. 

10  Rosenthal,  Toledot  Hebrat  Marbe  Haskalah,  i.  3,  19,  103,  158- 
159;  ii.  Introduction. 

11  How  happy  the  Maskilim  of  that  time  were  to  save  their 
fellows  from  the  darkness  of  ignorance  can  be  seen  from  the 
following  anecdote  told  by  a  Maskil  in  a  retrospective  mood  (Ha- 
Shiloah,  xvii.,  257-258)  :  “Among  the  first  of  our  young  men  to 
enter  the  gymnasium  of  my  native  town  of  Mohilev  were  Ack- 
selrod  and  the  Leventhal  brothers.  The  former  began  to  give  in¬ 
struction  while  he  was  still  in  the  third  grade  ....  One  morning 
he  suddenly  disappeared.  After  several  days  of  anxious  search  it 
was  discovered  that  he  had  left  on  foot  for  Shklov,  a  distance  of 
about  thirty  vyersts,  and  while  there  he  succeeded  in  persuading 
fifteen  boys  to  leave  the  yeshibah  and  come  with  him  to  Mohilev, 
where,  like  a  puissant  warrior  returning  in  triumph,  he  went 
with  his  little  army  to  the  different  homes  to  secure  board  and 
lodging  for  them  while  they  were  being  prepared  for  admission 
into  the  gymnasium.” 

13  Op.  cit.,  p.  35  (Engl,  transl.,  p.  26). 

13  Op.  cit.,  p.  9. 

14  Max  Raisin,  The  Reform  Movement,  etc.  (reprint  from  the 
Year  Book  of  the  Central  Conference  of  American  Rabbis,  xvi.), 
Introduction. 

16  Odessky  Yevrey,  1847  (Novaya  Yevreyskaya  Synagoga  v 
Odessa). 

18  Hessen,  op.  cit.,  p.  68;  Voskhod,  1881,  p.  132. 

17  Rosenthal,  op.  cit.,  p.  70;  Gordon,  Iggerot,  nos.  60-62;  Ha- 
Meliz,  xx,  nos.  8,  11,  13. 

18  Voskhod,  1900,  v.;  Sefer  ha-Shanah,  ii.  288-290. 

19  Ha-Meliz,  1899,  no.  39. 

20  Ben  Sion,  Yevrey  Reformatory,  St.  Petersburg,  1882.  In  his 
manifesto  (Ha-Meliz,  April  21,  1881)  Gordon  declared:  “We 
have  discarded  the  dusty  Talmud.  We  cannot  rest  satisfied,  in 
questions  of  religion,  with  the  worm-eaten  carcass,  with  the  ob- 

32B 


NOTES 


[pp.  248-260 


servances  of  rabbinical  Judaism.”  See  Ha-Shiloah,  ii.  53.  See 
also  Kahan,  Meahore  ha-Pargud  (reprint  from  Ha-Meliz,  1885), 
St.  Petersburg,  1886. 

21  Prelooker,  op.  cit.,  pp.  24  f . ;  Voskhod,  Feb.  3,  1886;  Razsvyet, 
1881,  no.  25. 

22  Duprey,  Great  Masters  of  Russian  Literature  (Engl,  transl. 
Dole,  New  York,  1886),  p.  151. 

23  Rosenthal,  op.  cit.,  i.  66,  103,  158-159;  Ha-Maggid,  1868,  p. 
18.  Cf.  McClintock  and  Strong,  Biblical,  Theological  and  Ecclesi¬ 
astical  Cyclopedia,  New  York,  1891,  ii.  805.  The  beautiful  syna¬ 
gogue  which  the  Jews  began  to  erect  in  Moscow  at  the  cost  of  half 
a  million  rubles  was  declared  by  Pobyednostsev  to  be  “  too  high 
and  imposing,”  and  they  were  compelled  to  destroy  the  cupola 
and  deform  the  interior.  Nevertheless  it  had  to  remain  a  “  dead  ” 
synagogue,  until  Nicholas  II  was  pleased  to  give  permission  to 
open  it. 

24  Shereshevsky,  O  Knigie  Kahala,  St.  Petersburg,  1872;  Seiber- 
ling,  Gegen  Brafmann’s  Buch  des  Kahals,  Vienna,  1881;  Ha- 
Shahar,  iv.  621  ;  xi.  242. 

“Prelooker,  Heroes  and  Heroines  of  Russia,  London,  p.  120; 
Ha-Shiloah,  xvii.  257-263. 

“Zederbaum,  'Ayin  Zofiyah,  Warsaw,  1877,  pp.  7-8;  Prelooker, 
Under  the  Czar,  etc.,  pp.  8-21. 

27  It  may  not  be  superfluous  to  quote  here  the  vivid  picture  given 
of  the  period  I  am  now  describing  by  Eliakum  Zunser  in  his 
interesting  autobiography;  the  more,  as  it  is  depicted  very  much 
in  the  style  of  the  Maskilim  of  to-day: 

“  It  is  an  accepted  law  in  hygiene  that  the  digestive  system 
must  not  be  overburdened  at  any  one  time  by  too  much  food,  that 
eating  must  not  be  done  hastily,  and,  above  all,  great  care  must  be 
taken  to  choose  wholesome  and  digestible  food.  These  principles 
are  still  more  important  to  one  who  is  hungry,  who  has  abstained 
from  food  for  any  length  of  time.  He  should  select  the  healthy 
and  light  foods,  and  partake  of  little  at  first  until  the  powers  of 
digestion  are  fully  restored.  Should  he  neglect  to  observe  these 
simple  rules,  he  will  ruin  his  digestive  system,  the  food  will 

324 


p. 260] 


NOTES 


turn  into  poison,  and  he  may  contract  a  stubborn  disease  which  no 
physician  will  be  able  to  cure. 

“This  is  exactly  what  happened  to  our  Russian  Jews  from  i860 
to  1880.  For  many  long  centuries  they  had  endured  an  intellectual 
fast.  The  Government  had  debarred  them  from  the  world’s  cul¬ 
ture.  They  were  closely  packed  together  in  the  narrow  and 
dark  ghettos.  They  knew  of  their  synagogues,  yeshibot,  and 
prayer-houses  (Kloisen)  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  their  little  stores 
on  the  other.  That  there  was  a  great  world  beyond  and  without, 
a  world  of  culture,  education,  and  civilization,  of  this  they  had 
only  heard.  A  great  many  of  them  strove  to  break  through  the 
bounds  that  confined  them  and  step  into  the  world  of  light  and 
life ;  but  the  Cossack,  lead-laden  whip  in  hand,  stood  there  ready 
to  drive  them  back. 

“  The  thirst  for  education  and  civilization  became  daily  more 
intense,  and  reached  the  utmost  limits  of  endurance.  Five  million 
Russian  Jews  raised  their  hands  to  the  Government  and  pleaded 
for  mercy:  ‘Release  us  from  this  ghetto!  We,  too,  are  human 
beings!  Give  us  breathing  space!  Give  us  light!  We  are  faint 
and  starving!’  And  the  Cossack  promptly  answered  ‘  Nazad 
(‘Back!’)  Here  you  are  and  here  you  remain — not  a  step 
further !  ’ 

“  And  all  at  once,  lo !  there  came  a  light !  Alexander  II,  as 
soon  as  he  ascended  the  throne,  opened  wide  the  doors  of  the 
ghetto,  and  the  Russian  Jews,  young  and  old,  men  and  women, 
rushed  to  the  new  culture.  All  crowded  to  the  dainty  dish,  and 
no  time  was  lost  in  making  up  for  the  intellectual  fast. 

“  But  here  happened  what  usually  occurs  after  a  long  fast. 
The  wiser  partook  of  food  with  discretion.  They  selected  the 
ingredients  which  were  wholesome,  and  which  their  system  could 
digest.  All  unripe,  objectionable  food  they  rejected;  their  main 
object  was  to  select  the  food  which  the  Jewish  system  could 
assimilate.  The  governing  principle  was  to  unite  Jewish  learning 
with  the  new  culture.  They  knew  that  among  the  new  delicacies 
there  were  many  that  were  injurious  and  unhealthy,  though  the 
defects  were  disguised  by  alluring  spices;  but  those  who  had 

325 


NOTES 


[p.  260 


not  lost  the  innate,  unerring  Jewish  scent  found  no  difficulty  in 
distinguishing  that  which  was  sound  from  the  injurious,  and  they 
remain  strong  and  faithful  Jews  to  this  day. 

“  Others,  and  they  formed  the  greater  part  of  the  Russian  Jews, 
seized  things  as  they  came.  Nay,  the  more  dangerous  the  delicacy, 
the  more  the  relish  with  which  it  was  devoured.  And  these 
delicacies  were  gorged  at  such  a  rate  as  to  cause  constitutional 
disorder.  They  who  were  a  little  wiser  somehow  shook  off  the 
objectionable  matter,  and  became  ‘whole’  again;  and  a  great 
number  ‘  died,’  and  a  still  greater  number  are  dangerously  ‘  sick  ’ 
to  this  very  day. 

“  The  sick  among  our  Russian  brethren,  those  who  partook  in 
dangerous  quantities  of  the  unwholesome  delicacies,  believed  that 
they  would  solve  all  difficulties  by  ‘  Russification,’  that  is,  by 
abandoning  the  old  Jewish  culture  and  adopting  Russian  manner¬ 
isms  and  customs — by  ceasing  to  lead  Jewish  lives  and  by  leading 
the  lives  of  Russians.  A  great  number  of  Jewish  literary  men 
of  those  times  believed  that  if  the  Russian  Jews  would  become 
‘  Russified,’  and  would  adopt  modern  civilization,  they  would 
receive  full  and  equal  rights,  on  the  same  terms  as  the  other 
nationalities.  These  literary  men  were  dazzled  by  the  little 
liberty  Alexander  II  granted  the  Russian  Jews,  and  they  did 
not  understand  that  he  pursued  the  same  object  as  his  father, 
Nicholas  I.  In  the  days  of  Alexander  II,  many  more  Jews  were 
converted  to  Christianity  than  in  the  bitter  days  of  Nicholas  I; 
and  many  who  were  not  converted  remained  but  caricatures  of 
real  Jews. 

“The  so-called  ‘Jewish  Aristocracy’  in  Russia,  and  especially 
the  wealthy  Jews  of  North  Russia,  of  St.  Petersburg,  Moscow,  and 
Kharkov,  Russified  at  top  speed.  They  removed  from  their  homes 
and  their  home-life  anything  that  was  in  the  least  degree  Jewish. 
They  shattered  all  that  for  thousands  of  years  had  been  holy  and 
dear  to  the  Jew.  Like  apes  they  imitated  the  manners  and  cus¬ 
toms  of  the  Christians.  The  younger  children  did  not  even  know 
that  they  were  descended  from  Jews,  as  was  the  case  in  the  first 

826 


pp.  261-276] 


NOTES 


‘pogroms,’  when  the  children  asked  their  parents:  ‘Why  do  they 
beat  us?  Are  we,  too,  Jews  (Razve  vy  tozhe  Yevrey)  ?’” 

28  For  a  full  biography  see  Brainin,  Perez  ben  Mosheh  Smolen- 
skin,  Warsaw,  1896;  Keneset  Yisrael,  i.  249-286;  Ha-Shiloah,  i. 
82-92,  and  his  works,  especially  Ha-Toeh  be-Darke  ha-Hayyim, 
Vienna,  1876. 


Chapter  VI 

THE  AWAKENING 
1881-1905 
(pp.  268-303) 

1  Most  of  this  is  based  on  Persecution  of  the  Jews  in  Russia, 
Philadelphia,  1891,  pp.  8-18,  22,  35,  51-82,  184-185;  Frederick, 
The  New  Exodus,  London,  1892,  pp.  192-208;  Errera,  Les  juifs 
russes,  Brussels,  1893,  pp.  29,  43  f.,  89-90,  188-189.  Between  1883 
and  1885,  the  Mining  Institute  and  Engineering  Institute  for 
Public  Roads  adopted  the  five  per  cent  limit,  the  Kharkov  Tech¬ 
nical  Institute  a  ten  per  cent  limit,  and  the  Veterinary  Institute, 
of  the  same  city,  the  only  one  of  the  sort  in  Russia,  excluded  Jews 
altogether. 

“My  zemlyakes”  (countrymen),  says  a  reminiscent  writer, 
“  soon  after  they  had  finished  their  course  in  engineering,  had  taken 
each  a  different  road.  One  became  a  crown-rabbi,  one  a  flour 
merchant,  a  third  a  bookkeeper,  but  none  of  them  could,  on  ac¬ 
count  of  his  religion,  legally  pursue  his  chosen  vocation”  (Yid¬ 
dishes  Tageblatt,  New  York,  May  13,  1908). 

2Urussov,  Memoirs  of  a  Russian  Governor  (Engl,  transl.,  New 
York,  1908),  pp.  70,  90-91.  “  Out  of  266  students  admitted  to  the 
Kharkov  University  in  1901,  only  8  were  Jews,  though  at  least 
12  had  ‘  finished  the  gymnasium,’  not  only  with  the  ‘  highest 
possible’  marks,  but  with  gold  medals.  At  the  Technological  In¬ 
stitute  of  the  same  city,  7  were  Jews  in  a  total  of  240,  though  12 
applying  for  admission  had  received  the  ‘  highest  possible  ’  marks. 
At  the  Kiev  University,  of  580  new  students,  32,  all  of  them  medal- 

327 


NOTES 


[pp.  277-289 


lists,  were  Jews.  How  many  applied  for  admission,  the  daily  and 
weekly  press,  from  which  these  figures  are  taken,  did  not  report.” 

3  Ner  ha-Ma'arabi,  vii,  27. 

4  “  He  who  claims  that  a  spirit  of  reaction  has  affected  our 
people  as  a  whole,”  says  Moses  Reines  (Ozar  ha-Sifrut,  ii.  45), 
“  is  greatly  mistaken.  That  the  children  of  the  poor  from  whom 
learning  cometh  forth  still  forsake  their  city  and  country  and  ac¬ 
quire  knowledge,  ....  that  societies  for  the  spread  of  Haskalah 
are  formed  every  day,  ....  that  strict  and  pious  Jews  send  their 
sons  and  daughters  to  where  they  can  obtain  enlightenment,  that 
rabbis,  d,°yyanim,  and  maggidim  urge  their  children  to  become 
proficient  in  the  requirements  of  the  times  ....  write  for  the 
press  ....  and  deplore  the  gezerot  (restrictions)  regarding  ad¬ 
mission  to  schools — all  this  proves  convincingly  that  they  do  not 
see  right  who  complain  that  our  entire  nation  is  going  backward.” 

5  See  Ha-Maggid,  1899,  no.  160.  While  in  1848  there  were  2446 
and  in  1854,  4439  converts,  in  1860-1880  there  were  from  350  to 
450  per  annum,  in  1881,  572,  in  1882,  610,  and  in  1883,  461 
converts.  With  the  spread  of  Zionism  conversions  continued  to 
diminish,  and,  while  there  were  relapses  during  the  renewed 
pogroms  of  1891  and  1901,  they  decreased  materially,  though  the 
Jewish  population  is  constantly  on  the  increase. 

6  Autobiography,  pp.  42-51.  See  also  Kahan,  Meahore  ha- 
Pargud,  pp.  15-17. 

7Ha-Meliz,  1900,  no.  123;  Luah  Ahiasaf,  5696,  p.  312;  Zablotz- 
ky  and  Massel,  Ha-Yizhari,  Manchester,  1895,  Introduction;  Ha- 
Meliz,  xxxvii,  no.  36;  The  Menorah,  April,  1904. 

8Yalkut  Ma'arabi,  1904,  pp.  46  f. 

8  Ha-Shahar,  x.  511,  30;  Habazelet,  1882,  no.  2. 

10Ha-Le'om,  1906,  nos.  21-22;  Belkind,  in  Ha-Zefirah,  no.  46, 
1913;  Lubarsky  and  Lewin-Epstein,  Derek  Hayyim,  New  York, 
1905. 

11  Greenstone,  The  Messiah  Idea  in  Jewish  History,  ch.  viii. 

“The  Progress  of  Zionism,  pp.  3-4;  cf.  Voskhod,  1895,  iv. 

328 


pp.  289-300] 


NOTES 


“Zamenhof’s  new  universal  language  was  primarily  intended 
to  be  the  international  language  of  his  people,  “  who  are  speech¬ 
less,  and  therefore  without  hope,  scattered  over  the  world,  and 
hence  unable  to  understand  one  another,  obliged  to  take  their 
culture  from  strange  and  hostile  sources.” 

^Ahiasaf,  iv. ;  Gordon,  op.  cit.,  i.  xxi ;  Razsvyet,  1882,  i. ; 
MagiPs  Kobez  (Collection),  no.  3,  p.  45. 

15  Ha-Meliz,  1899,  no.  256;  1901,  no.  2;  weekly  Voskhod,  1893, 
no.  40;  monthly  Voskhod,  1894,  iv.  Some  Jewish  financiers 
erected  gymnasia  in  Vilna  and  Warsaw,  improved  the  condition 
of  the  hadarim,  and  turned  many  Talmud  Torahs  into  technical 
schools.  Of  the  Lodz  Talmud  Torah  a  writer  says  that  “  no  Jewish 
community,  even  outside  of  Russia,  possesses  such  an  institution, 
not  excepting  the  Hirsch  schools  in  Galicia.” 

10  London,  Unter  jiidischen  Proletariern,  1898,  pp.  81-83;  Bram- 
son,  K  Istorii,  etc.,  pp.  63-69,  71-74;  Ha-Meliz,  xli.,  no.  246 
(1901,  no.  35);  Ha-Zefirah,  xxix.,  no.  285;  and  the  Jewish 
Gazette,  July  16,  1909  (Kunst  und  Nationalismus) .  The  Ha- 
Zamir  (a  choral  society),  founded  in  Lodz  by  Nissan  Schapira, 
counts  its  members  by  the  thousands. 

17  London,  op.  cit.,  pp.  64-74;  Ha-Meliz,  1900,  nos.  192-193; 
Rubinow,  op.  cit.,  pp.  530-532,  548-553,  561-566. 

1S  Ha-Meliz,  1901,  nos.  20,  27,  36,  54,  95. 

19  Atlas,  Mah  Lefanim  u-mah  Leaher,  pp.  53  f. ;  Ha-Meliz, 
1900,  no.  47;  1901,  no.  27. 

20  Ha-Meliz,  1901,  no.' 87. 

21  Reflexions  sur  l’etat  des  israelites  russes,  Odessa,  1871,  pp. 
121-122. 

22  Kayserling,  Die  jiidischen  Frauen,  Leipsic,  1879,  pp.  306-313; 
Rubinow,  op.  cit.,  p.  581.  The  Russian  Jewess  has  already  pro¬ 
duced  several  writers  above  the  average  (Einhorn,  Mosessohn, 
Ben  Yehudah,  Sarah  and  Eva  Schapira)  in  Hebrew,  has  given 
Russian  literature  at  least  one  novelist  of  note  (Rachel  Khin), 
has  furnished  leaders  in  the  movement  for  the  emancipation  of 
women  (Maria  Saker),  and  especially  for  the  liberation  of  Russia 

329 


NOTES 


[p.  300 


(Finger,  Helfman,  Levinsohn,  Novinsky,  Rabinovich).  Accord¬ 
ing  to  Mr.  Rabinow,  the  Russo-Jewish  “  women  and  girls  use 
every  available  means  ”  to  obtain  an  education,  and  at  least  fifty 
per  cent  of  them  possess  a  knowledge  of  Russian  in  addition  to 
their  vernacular  Yiddish. 


330 


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*Wolf,  Maimoniana,  Berlin,  1813. 

Wolkonsky,  Pictures  of  Russian  Life  and  Literature,  Boston,  1897. 

Yevrey  Minister,  Voskhod,  1885,  v. 

Yevreyskaya  Enziklopedya,  St.  Petersburg,  14  vols. 

Zablotzky  and  Massel,  Ha-Yizhari,  Manchester,  1895. 
*Zederbaum,  'Ayin  Zofiyah,  Warsaw,  1877. 

Zederbaum,  Keter  Kehunnah,  Odessa,  1868. 

Zederbaum,  Kohelet,  St.  Petersburg,  1881. 

*Zunser,  Biography,  Yiddish  (and  Engl,  transl.),  New  York, 
1905. 

*Zunz,  Aelteste  Nachrichten  uber  Juden  und  jtidische  Gelehrte  in 
Polen,  Slavonien,  Russland.  Gesammelte  Schriften,  Berlin, 
1875,  iii.  82-87. 

Zweifel,  Sanegor,  Warsaw,  1894. 

*ZweifeI,  Shalom  'al  Yisrael,  Zhitomir,  1868-1872,  4  vols. 


22 


337 


INDEX 


Abele,  Abraham,  Talmudist,  164, 
199. 

Abi'ezer,  by  Giinzburg,  220. 

Abraham,  son  of  Elijah  Gaon,  119, 

Abramovich,  Andrey,  statesman, 
22. 

Abramovitsch,  Solomon  Jacob,  nov¬ 
elist,  203. 

Adelsohn,  Wolf,  “  the  Hebrew  Di¬ 
ogenes,”  200. 

Aguilar,  Grace,  on  Russo-Jewish 
misery,  154. 

Ahiasaf  Society.  296-297. 

Aleksey  (Abraham),  proselyte- 
priest,  25. 

Alexander  I,  during  his  period  of 
tolerance,  111-113;  during  his 
period  of  intolerance,  127-138, 
140,  144,  163,  170,  192,  201, 
249,  251,  253. 

Alexander  II,  referred  to,  n,  79, 
261;  reign  of  reforms,  222- 
226;  favorable  attitude  to¬ 
wards  Jews,  224-225,  229-231; 
the  Narodniki,  236;  change 
of  policy,  248-255;  plotted 
against  and  assassinated,  255- 
258. 

Alexander  III,  referred  to,  80, 
255;  restrictions,  268-270; 
pogroms,  269;  “  May  Laws,” 
270-273;  Jews  excluded  from 
schools  by,  273-275. 

Alexander  Jagellon  and  the  Jews, 
21. 

Allgemeine  jiidische  Arbeiterbund, 
Der,  in  Littauen,  Polen,  und 
Russland,  293. 


Alliance  Israelite  Universelle,  pro¬ 
gramme  of,  236;  criticism  of, 
285-286. 

Altaras,  Jacques  Isaac,  philanthro¬ 
pist,  157. 

America.  See  United  States,  the. 

'Am  'Olam  Society,  283. 

Amsterdam,  referred  to,  22;  a  place 
of  refugie  for  Russo-Polish 
proselytes,  27;  elects  Russo- 
Jewish  rabbis,  33-34;  place  of 
study,  81,  93,  109,  126,  165. 

Antokolsky,  Mark,  sculptor,  241. 

Anton,  Carl,  author,  64. 

Apostol,  Cossack  hetman,  57. 

Apotheker,  Abraham  Ashkenazi, 
author,  40. 

Arbeiterstimme,  Die,  293. 

Aristotle,  50,  216,  297. 

Ascension  of  Elijah,  134. 

Ashkenazi,  Meir,  envoy  of  the 
Khan  of  the  Tatars,  23. 

Ashkenazi,  Meir,  rabbinical  au¬ 
thor,  quoted,  31,  33. 

Ashkenazi,  Solomon,  statesman,  23. 

Assemblies,  Jewish,  under  Alexan¬ 
der  I,  1 17,  128;  under  Nich¬ 
olas  I,  1 5 1,  173,  174-176;  in 
Vilna,  165;  under  Alexander 
II,  230;  at  Kattowitz,  285. 

Auerbach,  Berthold,  on  Maimon, 

88. 

Austria,  Haskalah  in,  12,  188;  in¬ 
fluence  on  Russian  Maskilim, 
195;  place  of  study  for  Rus¬ 
sian  Jews,  285,  298.  See  also 
Galicia. 

Auto-Emancipation,  281-283. 

' Ayit  Zabua',  244-245. 


339 


INDEX 


Baku,  antiquity  of,  20. 

Barit,  Jacob  (“  Yankele  Kovner  ”), 
scholar,  200,  255,  259. 

Bathory,  Stephen,  59,  253. 

Beer,  Michel,  champion  of  Jewish 
rights,  1 14. 

Behalot,  63,  161. 

Behr,  Issachar  Falkensohn,  poet, 
90-91,  108. 

Belkind,  Israel,  Zionist,  286. 

Belzyc,  Jacob  Nahman,  author,  36. 

Bene  Mosheh  Society,  286. 

Bennett,  Solomon,  of  Polotzk,  en¬ 
graver,  champion  of  Jewish 
rights  in  England,  95-96. 

Bentwich,  on  Jewish  colonists  in 
Palestine,  289. 

Ben  Yehudah,  Eliezer,  Plebraist, 
284-285. 

Beobachter,  Der,  an  der  Weichsel, 
124,  196. 

Berdichev,  123,  175,  200,  206,  239. 

Berek,  Joselovich,  colonel,  115. 

Berlin,  37,  78,  80,  81,  84,  85,  90, 
91,  93,  120,  126,  132,  192,  245, 
251,  257,  291,  298. 

Berlin,  Moses,  uchony  Yevrey, 
230. 

Berlin,  Naphtali  Zebi  Judah,  dean 
of  Yeshibah,  152,  254,  288. 

Bernfeld,  on  Maimon,  86. 

Besht,  Israel  Baal  Shem  [Tob], 
referred  to,  65,  122,  123;  his 
life,  66-69;  opposition  to  rab- 
binism,  67,  70,  71,  75;  his  in¬ 
fluence,  76;  his  biography,  134. 

Bet  ha-Midrash,  description  of  the, 

50-51. 

Bet  ha-Sefer,  in  Jaffa,  290-291. 

Bet  Yehudah,  by  Levinsohn,  209- 
210. 

Bezalel,  school  of  art,  291. 

Bibikov,  on  Russian  Jews,  162. 


Bible,  the,  ancient  Russo-Jewish 
commentaries  on,  28;  customs 
of  (according  to  Elijah  Vil- 
na),  74;  the  Biur  on,  81,  82; 
Mendelssohn’s  translation,  105, 
13 1,  19 3,  203;  translated  into 
Russian,  239,  252. 

Bibleitsy  (Dukhovnoye  Bibleyskoye 
Bratstvo),  247-248. 

Bielski,  on  Jewish  proselytes,  27. 

Bilu  Society,  286. 

Biur,  commentary,  collaborators 
on,  81;  welcomed,  82;  banned, 
132;  studied,  193;  referred  to, 
265. 

Blood-accusation,  59,  115,  145,  155, 
208,  213,  229,  253,  275-276. 

Bogdanovich,  Judah,  merchant,  22. 

Bokhara,  127,  271. 

Bolingbroke,  quoted,  215. 

Bompi,  Issachar,  bibliophile,  166- 
167,  200. 

Eone  Zion  Society,  286-287. 

Book  of  Common  Prayer,  old 
translation  of,  30;  suggested 
changes  in,  175;  new  Russian 
translation,  239,  252. 

Brafmann,  Jacob,  delator,  254. 

Bratzlav,  53-54. 

Brest-Litovsk,  Jewish  community 
in,  20;  granted  privileges,  21; 
Talmudists  of,  34;  persecution 
of  Hasidim  in,  76;  Haskalah 
in,  105,  166,  200. 

Brody,  195. 

Buchner’s  Der  Talmud  in  seiner 
Nichtigkeit,  146. 

Buckle,  on  Russian  civilization, 
190;  referred  to,  245. 

Buduchnost,  286. 

Byelostok,  113,  199,  201,  294. 

Calvinism,  in  Poland,  56. 

Cantonists,  138-139,  142,  171,  225. 

Carlyle,  quoted,  88,  109. 


INDEX 


Caro,  Joseph  Hayyim,  rabbi,  200. 

Casal,  Jonas,  physician,  39. 

Casimir  IV,  Jews  under,  26,  253. 

Catherine  II,  favors  the  Jews,  110- 
ixi,  112,  147,  249. 

Chamisso,  on  “  the  Glusker  Mag¬ 
gid,”  132,  302. 

Chaucer  on  “  beggar  students,” 
48. 

Chazanowicz,  Joseph,  Zionist,  291. 

Chernichevsky’s  What  to  Do,  257. 

Chernigov,  Isaac  of,  Talmudist, 
29. 

Chernyshev,  Governor  -  General, 
proclaims  religious  liberty,  no. 

Chiarini,  Abbe  Luigi,  anti-Talmud¬ 
ist,  145.  146. 

Chmielnicki,  Cossack  hetman,  48, 
52,  53,  54,  58,  64,  77,  149. 

Chozi  Kokos,  statesman,  23,  55. 

Chufut-Kale  (Rock  of  the  Jews), 
19. 

Clement  VIII,  pope,  72. 

Clement  XIV,  pope,  253. 

Clermont-Tonnerre,  on  Zalkind 
Hurwitz,  93. 

Coen,  Moses,  court  physician  and 
statesman,  40-41. 

Cohen,  Shalom,  litterateur,  99. 

Cohn,  Tobias,  physician,  41-42;  on 
Polish  Jews,  64;  referred  to, 
101,  298. 

Coins,  with  Hebrew  inscriptions, 
21. 

Colonists,  under  Nicholas  I,  140- 
144,  160;  under  Alexander  II, 
228;  in  America,  283;  in  Pal¬ 
estine,  283,  286-289. 

Commendoni,  on  Lithuanian  Jews, 
24- 

Converts  to  Christianity,  25,  26, 
64,  130,  136,  139,  146,  168, 
177-178,  248,  254,  260,  270- 
273,  278-279,  303. 

Cossacks,  Jews  as,  23-24. 


Costume,  Jewish,  origin  of,  115; 
opposition  of  Maskilim  to,  166, 
175;  Friedlander  opposes,  170; 
enforced  change  of,  by  Gov¬ 
ernment,  179;  in  Courland, 
194. 

Council  of  the  Four  Countries,  44, 
208. 

Courland,  Jews  admitted  into,  in; 
annexed  to  Russia,  113;  taxes 
in,  129;  colonists  from,  140; 
stronghold  of  Haskalah,  193- 
194. 

Cracow,  27,  78. 

Cremieux,  Adolphe,  statesman,  154, 
175- 

Crimea,  the,  19,  23. 

Crusades,  the,  18,  52. 

Cyril,  apostle  to  Slavonians,  28. 

Czacki,  Tadeusz,  Polish  historian, 
defends  Jews,  114;  praises 
them,  1 15. 

Czartorisky,  Prince,  and  the  Pol¬ 
ish  Jews,  94,  1 16. 

Czatzskes,  Baruch,  translator,  124. 

Uainov,  Zebi  Hirsh,  “  the  Slutsker 
Maggid,”  246. 

Damascus  Affair,  the,  155,  208. 

Danzig’s  Hayye  Adam,  147. 

Darshan,  Moses  Isaac,  “  the  Khel- 
mer  Maggid,”  280. 

Dead  Souls,  by  Gogol,  257. 

Delacrut,  philosopher,  37. 

Delitzsch,  on  Dubno,  81;  on  He¬ 
brew  poetry,  98;  on  Satanov, 
99. 

Delmedigo,  Joseph,  physician,  24. 

Derek  Selulah,  by  Temkin,  146. 

Diakov,  on  Russian  Jews,  162, 
318  (n.  1). 

Dillon,  Eliezer,  financier,  118,  125. 

Dob  Bar,  biographer  of  Besht,  123. 

Dolitzky,  Menahem  Mendel,  poet, 
98,  243. 


341 


INDEX 


Dos  Polische  Y ingel,  by  Linetzky, 
242,  244. 

Dostrzegacz  Nadvisyansky,  196. 

Dubno,  65,  200. 

Dubno,  Solomon,  grammarian,  Si- 
82,  98,  105. 

Dubnow,  Simon,  historian,  17. 

Dyerzhavin’s  Mnyenie,  118. 

Edels,  Samuel  (Maharsha),  Tal¬ 
mudist,  72. 

Efes  Dammim,  by  Levinsohn,  208, 

213. 

Efrusi,  Hayyim,  communal  work¬ 
er,  165. 

Eger,  Akiba,  rabbi,  149. 

Eisenmenger’s  Entdecktes  Juden- 
thum,  146. 

Eishishki,  antiquity  of,  20. 

Eliasberg,  Jonathan,  rabbi,  288. 

Eliasberg,  Mordecai,  rabbi,  288. 

Elijah  Gaon,  70-76;  his  curriculum 
of  study,  73,  74;  his  apprecia¬ 
tion  of  science  and  influence 
on  Haskalah,  74,  75;  reputed 
to  be  the  author  of  Sefer  ha¬ 
ll  erit,  102;  his  disciples,  119- 
121,  126,  150;  his  biography, 
Ascension  of  Elijah ,  134;  re¬ 
ferred  to,  164,  197,  201,  212, 
220. 

Eliot,  George,  on  Maimon’s  Auto¬ 
biography,  88;  referred  to, 
297. 

Elizabeta  Petrovna,  57,  135,  195, 

Emden,  Jacob,  Talmudist,  78,  91, 
94,  197- 

England,  Russian  Jews  in,  29, 
93-96,  109;  sympathy  of,  154- 
157,  270. 

Entdecktes  Judenthum,  by  Eisen- 
menger,  146. 

Erter,  Isaac,  satirist,  205,  217. 

Esterka,  Polish  Jewish  queen  (?), 
22. 


Euclid,  in  Hebrew,  105. 
Exportation  Law  of  1843,  152-154, 
179. 

Eybeschutz,  Jonathan,  Talmudist, 

6 4,  78. 

Falk,  Hayyim  Samuel  Jacob,  Baal 
Shem,  93-94. 

Fathers  and  Sons,  by  Turgenief, 
257- 

Finkel,  Elijah,  educator,  164. 
Folk  Songs,  137-138,  141,  161,  232, 
316  (n.  36),  320  (n.  19). 

See  also  Lullabies. 

France,  Russian  Jews  in,  29,  92- 
93,  96,  109,  298,  300-301. 
Franco-Russian  war,  116-117,  204. 
Frank,  physician,  91,  127. 

Frank,  Jacob  (Yankev  Leibovich), 
founder  of  the  Frankists,  64- 

65,  66,  69,  104,  131. 

“  Freitisch,”  47,  151. 

Friedlander,  David,  scholar  and 

philanthropist,  referred  to, 
105,  237;  on  the  improvement 
of  Jews  in  Poland,  169-170. 
Frug,  Simon,  poet,  290,  297. 

Funn,  Joseph,  historian,  106,  203. 

Gaden,  Stephen  von,  court  physi¬ 
cian  and  statesman,  40. 
Galicia,  Haskalah  in,  12,  321  (n. 
25);  Hasidism  in,  69;  re¬ 
ferred  to,  163,  195,  205,  291. 
See  also  Austria. 

Germany,  Haskalah  in,  12;  emigra¬ 
tion  from,  30;  Russo-Polish 
rabbis  in,  33-34;  Russo-Jewish 
Maskilim  in,  77-91,  104,  106; 
Hebrew  poetry  of,  97-98;  ob¬ 
ject  of  Maskilim  in,  99-100, 
107;  Plaskalah  encouraged  by 
the  Government,  102;  by  Jew¬ 
ish  financiers,  237;  opposition 
to  Haskalah  in,  105-106,  131- 


342 


INDEX 


133,  188;  state  of  Judaism  in, 
168-169;  reason  for  speedy 
Germanization  of  Jews  in, 
191;  Jewish  science  in,  219; 
influence  of,  on  Russian  Mas- 
kilim,  192-198;  a  place  of  ref¬ 
uge,  252;  restrictions  against 
refugees  in,  298-299,  301. 

Gibbon,  Edward,  referred  to,  24. 

Ginzberg,  Asher  (Ahad  Ha-' Am), 
and  Haskalah,  13. 

Gliickel  von  Hamein’s  Memoirs, 
33- 

“  Glusker  Maggid,  the,”  132,  302. 

Goethe  on  Maimon,  89;  on  Behr, 
90;  referred  to,  189,  192. 

Gogol’s  Jewish  traitor,  224;  in¬ 
fluence  of  his  Dead  Souls, 
257- 

Gordin,  Jacob,  ethical  culturist, 
247. 

Gordon,  David,  litterateur,  284. 

Gordon,  J.  L.,  and  Haskalah,  re¬ 
ferred  to,  13,  252,  261;  poetry 
of,  98;  and  Levinsohn,  212; 
on  the  new  era,  232;  attacks 
the  Talmud,  243;  laments  the 
effect  of  Haskalah,  260;  on 
Zionism,  290. 

Gordon,  Jekuthiel,  scientist,  92. 

Gottlober,  Abraham  Bar,  on  Hasid¬ 
ism,  69;  on  Luria,  168;  and 
Levinsohn,  212;  on  Russifica¬ 
tion,  231;  defends  Mendels¬ 
sohn,  265. 

Graetz,  on  Maimon,  83;  on  Sla¬ 
vonic  Jews,  103. 

Granovsky,  on  Jewish  emancipa¬ 
tion,  228. 

Grazhdanin,  253,  302. 

Gregory  X,  pope,  253. 

Grodno,  Jewish  community  in,  20; 
a  Talmudic  centre,  32,  34; 

scene  of  martyrdom,  57;  per¬ 


secution  of  Hasidim  in,  76; 
Talmud  published  in,  148-149; 
Maskilim,  201. 

Guizolfi,  Zacharias  de,  statesman, 
23 ,  55,  306  (n.  1 2). 

Gunzberg,  Benjamin  Wolf,  stu¬ 
dent,  91. 

Giinzburg,  Horace,  financier,  237. 

Giinzburg,  Joseph  Yosel,  financier, 

237. 

Giinzburg,  Mordecai  Aaron,  13, 
204,  225;  his  life,  213-221; 
on  Minhagim,  215;  his  im¬ 
press  on  Hebrew  literature, 
2*7-2 19;  his  Abi'ezer,  220. 

Gurov ich,  Marcus,  educator,  228. 

HaBad,  reform  sect  of  Hasidim, 
122. 

Ha-Boker  Or,  265. 

Ha-Emet,  256. 

Haggadah  shel  Pesah,  Russian 
translation  of,  239. 

Haidamacks,  59,  269. 

Hakohen,  Ephraim,  rabbi,  34. 

Plakohen,  Joseph,  rabbi,  19,  195. 

Hakohen,  Raphael,  rabbi,  78. 

Ha-Maggid,  284. 

Ha-Meliz,  242,  286,  288. 

Hannover,  Nathan,  his  Safah  Be~ 
rurah,  39;  his  Yeven  Mezulah, 
quotation  from,  48-49. 

Harkavy,  Abraham,  Orientalist, 
17,  29,  203. 

Ha-Shahar,  242,  261-262,  265,  267. 

Hasidim,  65;  their  teachings,  66, 
67,  150;  spread,  69;  perse¬ 

cuted  by  the  Mitnaggedim,  76, 
13 1 ;  efforts  at  reconciliation 
with  Mitnaggedim,  120-121, 
260;  reformed,  122;  united 
with  Mitnaggedim  against  Has¬ 
kalah,  134;  fought  by  Maski¬ 
lim,  168. 


343 


INDEX 


Haskalah,  definitions  of,  12-13; 
writers  on,  14;  regarded  dif- 
erently  in  Germany  and  Rus¬ 
sia,  103-108,  1 3 1 ;  opposition 

to,  132-150,  185-188;  in  the 
“forties,”  164-197;  influence 
of  Germany  on,  191-199;  in 
Galicia,  205;  Levinsohn’s  ad¬ 
vice  on,  212;  Gunzburg’s  opin¬ 
ion  of,  216;  spreads  under 
Alexander  II,  230-248;  disap¬ 
pointments  of,  232-234;  and 
Reform  Judaism,  242-248;  cos¬ 
mopolitan,  255-257;  romantic 
and  pessimistic,  278-281;  Zion- 
istic,  283-291. 

Ha-Toeh  be-Darke  ha-Hayyim,  266, 
267. 

Hattot  Ne'urim,  232-234. 

Hayye  Adam,  by  Danzig,  147. 

Ha-Zefirah,  286. 

Hebrew  literature:  style,  96,  97, 
217-218;  poetry,  98;  Reform 
Judaism  in,  242-248;  necessity 
of  (Smolenskin),  264. 

Heder,  46,  184. 

Hegel,  86,  192. 

Heilprin,  Joseph,  financier,  175. 

Heine,  referred  to,  297;  on  Polish 
Jews,  314  (n.  43). 

Plelena,  Princess,  proselyte,  26. 

Heller,  Yom-Tob  Lipman,  rabbi, 
37. 

Herz,  Marcus,  disciple  of  Kant, 

85. 

Plerzl,  Theodore,  Zionist,  263,  281, 
283. 

Hillul  Society,  286. 

Hirsch,  Baron  de,  277. 

Hizzuk  Emunah,  Voltaire’s  opin¬ 
ion  on,  37. 

Hobebe  Zion,  285,  286. 

Horn,  Meir,  educator,  164. 

Horowitz,  Isaiah,  Cabbalist,  33. 

Horowitz,  Phinehas,  rabbi,  78. 


Horowitz,  Shabbatal,  rabbi,  34. 

Horowitz,  Shmelke,  rabbi,  78. 

Horwitz,  Aaron  Halevi,  rabbi,  78. 

Hurwitz,  Hirsh,  educator,  164. 

Hurwitz,  Hyman,  professor,  95. 

Hurwitz,  Judah  Halevi,  transla¬ 
tor,  92,  105,  121,  123,  125, 
134. 

[Hurwitz],  Phinehas  Elijah,  ency¬ 
clopedist,  101-103,  214. 

Hurwitz,  Zalkind,  champion  of 
Jewish  rights  in  France,  92-93. 

Huss,  influence  of,  in  Poland,  26. 

Hut  ha-Meshullash,  by  Kohn,  244. 

Ibn  Ezra,  Abraham,  commentaries 
on  his  works,  30,  106. 

Ignatiev,  Nicholas,  268. 

Tlluyim,  47. 

Ilye,  Manasseh  of,  Talmudist,  120- 
121,  125,  132,  134. 

Information  about  the  Killing  of 
Christians,  etc.,  by  Skripitzyn, 
229. 

Innocent  IV,  pope,  253. 

Inventions,  201-202. 

Israelit,  Asher,  Maggid,  280. 

Israelita,  Polish  weekly,  247. 

Isserles,  Moses,  rabbi,  50,  78. 

Italy,  a  place  of  attraction  for 
Russian  Jews,  37,  40,  91-92, 
126,  165. 

Ivan  the  Terrible,  55-56,  152. 

Jacob  Isaac,  court  physician,  39. 

Jaffe,  Daniel,  scholar,  90. 

Jaffe,  Mordecai  (Lebushim),  Tal¬ 
mudist,  37,  61,  105. 

Jastrow,  Marcus,  rabbi,  159,  246. 

Jekuthiel,  Solomon,  financier,  204. 

Jerusalem,  by  Mendelssohn,  209. 

Jerusalem,  pilgrimage  to,  65. 

Jesuits,  in  Poland,  54,  58. 

Joffe,  Mordecai,  rabbi,  288. 


INDEX 


Joseph  ben  Isaac  Levi,  philoso¬ 
pher,  38. 

Josephovich,  Abraham,  statesman, 
21-22. 

Josephovich,  Michael,  nobleman, 
21-22. 

Judah  Halevi,  poet  and  philoso¬ 
pher,  28,  98,  106,  284. 

Judah  Hasid,  mystic,  founder  of 
the  original  Hasidim,  65. 

Judaizing  heresy.  See  Proselytism. 

Judex  Judaeorum,  44. 

Jiidischer  Arbeiter,  Der,  293. 

Kab  ha-Yashar,  referred  to,  63. 

Kadimah  Society,  285. 

Kahal,  44;  oppression  by,  61;  de¬ 
nunciation  of,  254. 

Kalisz,  antiquity  of,  20. 

Kamenetz-Podolsk,  antiquity  of, 

41. 

Kant,  favorite  with  Maskilim,  79, 
192;  on  Maimon,  85,  88,  89; 
referred  to,  189. 

Kant,  the  Hebrew,  106. 

Kaplan,  Wolf,  educator,  225. 

Karaites,  discussions  with  Rabba- 
nites,  36;  with  Christians,  37; 
Nicholas  I  on,  136. 

Katkoff,  defends  Jews  under  Alex¬ 
ander  II,  225;  becomes  a  re¬ 
actionary  under  Alexander 
III,  269. 

Kattowitz,  conference  of,  285. 

Katz,  Meir,  Talmudist,  61. 

Katzenellenbogen,  Hayyim,  Tal¬ 
mudist,  40. 

Katzenellenbogen,  Moses,  40. 

Kaufman,  Governor-General,  con¬ 
vokes  conference,  255. 

Kertch,  Archbishop  of,  tries  to  con¬ 
vert  Jews,  25. 

Kharkov,  286. 

Khazars,  18,  20,  25. 

Khelm,  antiquity  of,  20. 


Khelm,  Ephraim  of,  liturgist,  35. 

Kherson,  28,  142,  144,  160,  292. 

Kiev,  early  settlement  of  Jews  in, 
19-20;  their  influence,  23; 
proselytism  in,  25;  Talmudists 
of,  29,  31;  University  of,  126; 
expulsions  from,  153;  referred 
to,  200,  226,  227,  275. 

Kishinev,  154,  164,  185,  248,  276. 

Kissilyef,  on  emigration,  158. 

Klaczke,  G.,  educator,  166. 

Kniga  Kahala,  254-255. 

Kobrin,  Joseph  of,  liturgist,  35. 

Kohen,  Naphtali,  rabbi,  34. 

Kohen,  Shabbatai,  rabbi  and  his¬ 
torian,  35-36. 

Kohn’s  Hut  ha-Meshullash,  244. 

Kol  Mebasser,  242. 

Konigsberg,  33,  79,  90,  120,  126, 
132. 

Kontrabandisti,  by  Levin,  303. 

Korner,  on  Maimon,  89. 

Korobka,  129. 

Korolenko’s  Skasanye  O  Florye 
Rimly aniny e ,  302. 

Kovno,  Government  of,  20;  city 
of,  21;  Talmudists  of,  34; 
Maskilim  in,  201,  246;  Mussar- 
nikes  in,  280;  referred  to,  288, 
294. 

Kramsztyk,  Isaac,  rabbi,  247. 

Krochmal,  Nahman,  philosopher, 
205. 

Kriidener,  Baroness,  127,  129,  251. 

Kruzhevan,  276. 

Kryloff,  175,  189. 

Kuritzin,  Theodore,  proselyte,  26. 

Kusselyevsky,  physician,  127. 

Ladi,  Shneor  Zalman  of,  116,  122- 
123. 

Landau,  Ezekiel,  rabbi,  78,  133. 

Landau,  Moses,  educator,  164. 

Lassalle,  257,  293,  297. 


345 


INDEX 


Lebensohn,  Abraham  Dob  Bar, 
poet,  98,  212,  244. 

Leczeka,  Abba,  “  the  Glusker  Mag- 
gid,”  132,  302. 

Leibnitz,  79,  88. 

Leibov,  Baruch,  martyr,  57. 

Lemberg,  court  of,  44;  fair  at,  49. 

Leo,  the  court  physician,  23,  39, 
55- 

Lermontoff’s  spy,  224. 

Leroy-Beaulieu,  Anatole,  on  Mai- 
mon,  130;  on  university  re¬ 
strictions,  276-277;  referred 

to,  303. 

Lessing,  Ephraim,  on  Israel  Za - 
moscz,  77;  on  Behr,  90;  re¬ 
ferred  to,  192. 

Letteris,  Me'ir  Halevi,  poet,  205. 

Letzte  Nachrichten,  293. 

Levanda,  Lyev,  novelist,  203,  279. 

Levin,  Judah,  merchant,  204. 

Levin,  Mendel,  Hebrew  and  Yid¬ 
dish  author,  99-101,  116,  119, 
195,  217. 

Levin’s  Kontrabandisti,  303. 

Levinsohn,  I.  B.,  and  Haskalah, 
13;  on  the  settlement  of  Jews 
in  Russia,  18;  on  the  effect  of 
Chmielnicki’s  massacres,  52; 
his  life,  204-213;  Te'udah  be- 
Y Israel,  205-207,  209,  210, 

221;  Efes  Dammim,  208,  213; 
Bet  Yehudah,  209-210;  Zerub- 
babel,  210-21 1,  213;  referred 
to,  2x9-220. 

Liboschiits,  Jacob,  physician  and 
philanthropist,  91. 

Liboschiits,  Osip  Yakovlevich, 
court  physician,  126. 

Lichtenstadt,  Moses,  communal 
worker,  165. 

Lieberman,  Aaron  (“  Arthur  Free¬ 
man  ”),  socialist,  256. 

Lieven,  Prince  Emanuel,  209. 

Lilien,  Ephraim  Moses,  artist,  291. 


Lilienblum,  Moses  Lob,  skeptic, 
232-234;  attacks  the  Talmud, 
242;  repentant,  279;  Zionist, 
289-290. 

Lilienthal,  Max,  referred  to,  14, 
117,  151,  164,  183,  277;  opens 
school  in  Riga,  165,  170;  his 
personality,  171-172;  his  Mag- 
gid  Yeshu'ah  and  his  efforts 
in  behalf  of  Russian  Jews, 
174-176;  his  disillusionment, 
177-180;  his  opinion  on  Rus¬ 
sia,  179;  how  regarded  by 
Maskilim,  172-173,  180-181; 

on  the  Jews  of  Courland,  194; 
on  the  Jews  of  Odessa,  196; 
his  supporters,  198-199,  200; 
Giinzburg  on,  216. 

Linetzky’s  Dos  Polische  Yingel, 
242,  244* 

“  Lishmah  ”  ideal,  107. 

Lithuania,  Magna  Charta  of,  21; 
Jewish  merchants  of,  22;  de¬ 
scription  by  Cardinal  Com- 
mendoni  and  by  Delmedigo, 
24;  Talmudic  centre,  31-35; 
status  of  Jews  of,  under  Ivan 
the  Terrible,  55;  after  the 
massacres,  60;  opposition  to 
Hasidism  in,  65,  69;  method 
of  study  in,  71-72;  inclination 
to  Haskalah  in,  105-109;  an¬ 
nexed  to  Russia,  1 13;  Russi¬ 
fied,  124-125;  colonization  in, 
143-144,  159;  Talmud  pub¬ 

lished  in,  148-149;  referred  to, 
195- 

Litvack,  Judah,  deputy,  93. 

Livonia,  Jewish  merchants  of,  22; 
Gentiles  remonstrate  on  behalf 
of  Jews  of,  57;  stronghold  of 
Haskalah,  193- 194. 

Loewe,  Louis,  Orientalist,  quoted, 
155*  199. 

London,  94,  126,  129. 


INDEX 


Louis  XIV,  and  the  Treaty  of 
Ryswick,  22. 

Lover  of  Enlightenment  societies, 
165. 

Lublin,  31,  34,  40;  fair  at,  49; 
Haskalah  in,  105. 

Lublin,  Meir  (Maharam),  Talmud¬ 
ist,  72. 

Lukas,  “  the  little  Jew,”  25. 

Lullabies,  Russo-Jewish,  quoted, 
46,  309  (n.  39).  See  also 

Folk  Songs. 

Luria,  David,  philanthropist,  166, 
168,  203. 

Luria,  Solomon,  Talmudist,  40; 
censures  the  liberality  of  Is- 
serles,  50;  opposes  the  kahal, 
61;  his  method  of  study,  72. 

Luther’s  doctrines  in  Poland,  26. 

Luzzatto,  Moses  Hayyim,  poet,  92. 

Lyons,  Israel,  grammarian,  93. 

Ma'aseh  Tobiah,  42. 

Macaulay,  on  Russian  civilization, 
310  (n.  6). 

McCaul’s  Old  Paths,  146,  21 1. 

Maggid  Yeshu'ah,  by  Lilienthal, 
174-176. 

Maimon,  Solomon,  81-89;  quoted, 
31,  60,  106;  Autobiography,  83, 
88;  his  philosophy,  84-87;  his 
contributions  to  the  Meassef, 
98;  referred  to,  108,  130,  132, 
192,  298. 

Maimuni,  commentators  on  his 
Moreh  Nebukim,  38,  84,  89; 
retranslated  by  Levin,  100; 
his  Mishneh  Torah,  translated, 
186,  200;  his  Hebrew  style, 
97- 

Malak,  Abraham,  Hasid,  122. 

Malak,  Hayyim,  Hasid,  65. 

Manasseh  ben  Israel,  32;  his  Nish- 
mat  Hayyim,  63;  his  activity, 
96. 


Mandelkern,  Solomon,  rabbi,  203, 
246. 

Mandelstamm,  Benjamin,  on  Lili¬ 
enthal,  173;  quoted,  186;  on 
Vilna,  198;  and  Levinsohn, 
212. 

Mandelstamm,  Leon,  graduate  from 
University  of  St.  Petersburg, 
186,  200,  252. 

Mane,  Mordecai  Zebi,  poet,  98. 

Mann,  Eliezer,  “  the  Hebrew  Soc¬ 
rates,”  38. 

Mann,  Menahem,  martyr,  27. 

Manoah,  Handel,  mathematician, 

38. 

Mapu,  Abraham,  novelist,  244-245. 

Margolioth,  Judah  Lob,  rabbi,  105, 
125. 

Markusevich,  Isaac,  physician,  127. 

Marx,  Karl,  his  teachings  promul¬ 
gated,  256;  his  name  assumed, 
257. 

Masliansky,  Zebi  Hirsh,  Maggid, 
280. 

May  laws,  270-275. 

Meassef,  contributors  to,  98-100; 
condemned,  132;  referred  to, 
265. 

Megillah  'Afah,  36. 

Meisels,  Berish,  rabbi,  24b. 

Melammedim,  in  Germany,  35,  78, 
80;  in  Russia,  47,  294. 

Memorbuch  of  Mayence,  29. 

Mendelssohn,  Meyer,  communal 
worker,  140. 

Mendelssohn,  Moses  (Rambman, 
“  Dessauer  ”),  appealed  to  by 
Mitnaggedim,  75 ;  his  contact 
with  Russiam  Jews,  76-78;  his 
friends  and  followers,  81-90, 
135;  his  philosophy,  88;  re¬ 
ferred  to,  92;  presumed  to  be 
author  of  Sefer  ha-Berit,  102; 
his  translation  of  the  Penta¬ 
teuch,  78,  81,  105,  132,  133, 


347 


INDEX 


203;  post-Mendelssohnian  peri¬ 
od  in  Germany,  168;  in  Rus¬ 
sia,  192,  193;  his  Jerusalem, 
209;  his  Phaedon,  2x4;  Alex¬ 
ander  I’s  ideal  Jew,  128;  the 
“Russian  Mendelssohn,”  213; 
Smolenskin  and  Gottlober  on, 
265. 

Mendlin,  Jacob  Wolf,  socialist, 
293. 

Meseritz,  Bar  of,  promoter  of 
Hasidism,  65. 

Midrash  Talpiyot,  63. 

Mielziner,  Leo,  on  Zionist  artists, 
291. 

Mikhailovich,  Czar  Aleksey,  40. 

Milman,  on  Maimon’s  Autobiog¬ 
raphy,  88. 

Minhagim,  according  to  Elijah  Vil- 
na,  73-74;  according  to  M.  A. 
Giinzburg,  215. 

Minor,  Solomon  Zalkind,  “  the 
Russian  Jellinek,”  235,  236. 

Minsk,  21;  Talmudists  of,  34,  per¬ 
secution  of  Hasidim  in,  76; 
schools  in,  166-167,  292;  re¬ 
ception  of  Lilienthal  in,  172, 
173;  Maskilim  of,  200,  201- 
235,  246;  referred  to,  292, 
293. 

Mirabeau’s  reference  to  Hurwitz, 
92. 

Mitau,  123,  216. 

Mitauer,  Elias,  communal  worker, 
140. 

Mitnaggedim,  opposition  to  Hasid¬ 
ism,  70,  131;  efforts  of,  at 
reconciliation  with  Hasidim, 
120-121;  make  common  cause 
with  Hasidim  against  Mas¬ 
kilim,  134,  260. 

Mnyenie,  by  Dyerzhavin,  118. 

Mohilev,  31,  104,  119,  128,  202. 

Moldavia,  40-41. 

Molo,  Francisco,  economist,  22. 


Montefiore,  Sir  Moses,  visits  Rus¬ 
sia,  155-157;  invited  to  Russia, 
175;  entertained,  200;  visit  of 
1872  to  Russia,  230;  on  the 
pogroms,  270;  on  Russo-Jew- 
ish  women,  299. 

Morgulis,  Manasseh,  litterateur, 
14,  187-188. 

Morschtyn,  George,  proselyte  (?), 
26. 

Mosaide,  by  Wessely,  98. 

Moscow,  proselytism  in,  25,  26; 
expulsions  from,  56,  153,  271; 
Jews  admitted  to,  111;  con¬ 
verts  in,  177;  Russification  in, 
240;  restrictions  in  the  Uni¬ 
versity  of,  274,  276;  referred 
to,  291. 

Moses,  martyr,  57. 

Mussarnikes,  280. 

Muzhiks,  emancipation  of,  222- 
223;  education  of,  236-237; 
restlessness  of,  249-250;  social¬ 
ism  among,  257. 

Mylich,  George  Gottfried,  Luther¬ 
an  champion  of  Jewish  rights, 

113-114- 

Nachlass,  Wolf,  Cantonist,  139. 

Napoleon,  convokes  the  Sanhedrin, 
93;  his  invasion  of  Russia, 
1 12,  1 13;  his  defeat,  115-117, 
128;  on  Vilna,  197. 

Narodnaya  Volya  Society,  257, 
278. 

Narodniki,  236-237. 

Nazimov,  Governor-General,  cham¬ 
pion  of  Jews,  201,  225. 

Nebakhovich,  Alexander,  theatrical 
director,  201. 

Nebakhovich,  Leon  (Lob),  first  de¬ 
fender  of  Russian  Jews  in 
Russian,  114,  125,  130;  drama¬ 
tist,  189. 


INDEX 


Nebakhovich,  Michael,  editor  of 
comic  paper,  201. 

Nemirov,  59. 

Nemirov,  Jehiel  Michael  of,  schol¬ 
ar,  35. 

Nestor’s  Chronicles,  20. 

Nicholas  I,  referred  to,  104,  202, 
222,  229,  246,  249,  253,  260, 
268,  284;  his  policy,  135-160; 
his  recruiting,  135-139;  his  col¬ 
onization  scheme,  140- 143;  at¬ 
tempts  at  conversion  of  Jews, 
144-147,  188;  his  Exportation 
Law,  1 52- 1 54;  his  accusations 
refuted,  162-164;  investigates 
number  of  learned  Jews,  167, 
168,  198;  outwitted,  184;  on 
Jews  of  Odessa,  196. 

Nicholas  II,  referred  to,  80,  192; 
persecution  of  Jews  under, 
275-277. 

Nieszvicz,  82,  114,  118,  127,  197. 

Nisanovich,  Itshe,  physician,  39. 

Nishmat  Hayyim,  by  Manasseh  ben 
Israel,  63. 

Noah,  Mordecai  Manuel,  states¬ 
man,  284. 

Nomenclature,  Russo-Jewish,  30. 

Notkin,  Nathan,  diplomat  and  phil¬ 
anthropist,  xi  8,  125. 

Novgorod,  25,  139,  27 1. 

Novy  Israil  Society,  248. 

Odessa,  schools  in,  164,  185;  Lili- 
enthal  in,  176;  Jewish  influ¬ 
ences  in,  194-197;  Talmud 
Torah  of,  226;  Haskalah  in, 
233-235;  Russification  of,  240, 
246,  255;  assimilation  in,  248; 
pogromy  in,  253;  referred  to, 
251,  292,  294,  295,  296;  Jew¬ 
ish  women  of,  299-300. 

*Olam  Katan,  297. 

Old  Paths,  by  McCaul,  146,  211. 

Ostrog,  44,  206. 


Pale,  the  Jewish,  188,  199,  271, 
274. 

Palestine,  rehabilitation  of,  13; 
settlers  from,  in  Russia,  18, 
27;  longing  for,  153,  283; 

Smolenskin  on,  263-264. 

Parlovich,  Arthur,  physician,  126. 

Patapov,  Governor-General,  con¬ 
vokes  a  conference,  259. 

Paul  I,  62,  hi,  1 12. 

Paul  III,  pope,  253. 

Pechersky,  St.  Feodosi,  25. 

Peretz,  Abraham,  diplomat,  118, 

125,  130. 

Peretz,  Gregori,  Dekabrist,  192, 
249,  284. 

Perl,  Joseph,  educator,  163,  164, 
205. 

Perl,  S.,  educator,  166. 

Persia,  immigrants  from,  19. 

Peter  the  Great,  conquers  the 
Tatars,  54;  his  attempts  to 
civilize  Russia,  56;  surrender 
of  Riga  to,  123. 

Phaedon,  by  Mendelssohn,  214. 

Philippson,  Ludwig,  rabbi,  154, 
158,  175- 

Phillips,  Phinehas,  founder  of  the 
Anglo- Jewish  family,  94. 

Pinczows,  the,  scholars,  104- 105. 

Pinner,  Ephraim  Moses,  Talmud¬ 
ist,  145. 

Pinsk,  76,  197,  202,  242. 

Pinsker,  Leo,  nationalist,  263,  281- 
283. 

Pinsker,  Simhah,  scholar,  108-109, 
164,  195. 

Pirogov,  Nikolai  Ivanovich,  lib¬ 
eral  school  superintendent, 
226-228. 

Plehve,  von,  on  restrictions,  302. 

Plungian,  Ezekiel  Feirel,  Talmud¬ 
ist,  1 19,  203. 


349 


INDEX 


Pobyedonostsev,  influences  Alex¬ 
ander  II,  250-251;  procura¬ 
tor  of  the  Holy  Synod,  269; 
his  policy  regarding  Jews, 
270;  on  Jewish  superiority, 
273. 

Podolia,  60,  64,  69,  162,  195,  277. 

Pogodin,  on  early  Russian  Jews, 
19. 

Pogromy,  253,  269-270. 

Poimaniki,  136-138,  152,  162,  184. 

Poimshchiki,  137. 

Polack,  Jacob,  Talmudist,  72,  104. 

Poland,  early  settlement  of  Jews 
in,  20;  political  eminence  of, 
22-23;  proselytism  in,  26;  af¬ 
ter  Chmielnicki’s  massacres, 
53-55;  influence  of  Calvinism 
in,  56-57;  during  the  rozbior, 
58;  after  the  annexation,  113; 
Jewish  loyalty  to,  115-116;  un¬ 
der  Nicholas  I,  158-159;  use 
of  Polish  in,  196;  sympathy 
with,  and  adoption  of  lan¬ 
guage  of,  246-247. 

Polonnoy,  Jacob  Joseph  of,  fol¬ 
lower  of  Besht,  65;  his  T ole- 
dot  Ya'akob  Yosef  burnt  in 
Vilna,  76;  mentioned,  122, 
132. 

Polotsk,  55,  95. 

Poltava,  200,  239,  300. 

Popes,  72,  253. 

Posner,  Solomon,  philanthropist, 
143-144. 

Pototzki,  Count  Valentine,  prose¬ 
lyte,  27. 

Prayer  book.  See  Book  of  Com¬ 
mon  Prayer. 

Prelooker,  Jacob,  241-242,  248. 

Printing-press,  permission  to  estab¬ 
lish,  no;  first  publications 
from,  124;  restrictions  re¬ 
moved  from  use  of,  230. 


Prochovnik,  Abraham,  Jewish  king 
of  Poland  (?),  22. 

Proselytism,  18,  20,  24-28. 

Public  schools,  admission  of  Jews 
to,  in,  1 18,  125;  exclusion 
of  Jews  from,  273-275. 

Pumpyansky,  Aaron  Elijah,  rabbi, 
203,  246. 

Pushkin’s  prisoner,  224. 

Querido,  Jacob,  mystic,  64. 

Rabbinical  seminaries,  144-145, 
165,  170,  173,  182,  196,  202- 
203. 

Rabbis,  position  of,  in  Russo-Po- 
land,  44-45;  required  to  know 
Russian,  German,  or  Polish, 
125;  opposed  by  Maskilim, 
173;  Lilienthal  on,  174,  181; 
Giinzburg  on,  216-217,  duk- 
hovny  and  kazyony,  295-296. 

Rabinovich,  Osip,  litterateur,  201, 
238,  243. 

Rabinowitz,  Joseph,  assimilation- 
ist,  248. 

Rachmailovich,  Affras,  merchant, 
22. 

Radziwill,  Prince,  24,  39,  62. 

Rapoport,  Solomon  Lob,  rabbi, 
205. 

Rasiner,  Israel,  zaddik,  21 1. 

Raskolniki,  248. 

Rathaus,  Abraham,  merchant,  200. 

Razsvyet,  238,  243-244,  286. 

Reform  Judaism,  and  the  Haskalah, 
242-248;  sermons  in  Russian, 
246;  Smolenskin  on,  264-265. 

Reform  synagogues,  in  Odessa, 
196;  in  Warsaw,  197;  in  Vil¬ 
na,  198. 

Reines,  Isaac  Jacob,  rabbi,  295. 

Reis,  Joseph,  grandfather  of  Wes- 
sely,  77. 


850 


INDEX 


Revolutionaries,  192,  248-251,  255- 
258. 

Riesser,  Gabriel,  champion  of  Jew¬ 
ish  emancipation,  78. 

Riga,  123,  164,  170,  180,  185,  195, 
197,  225,  246,  271. 

Risenci,  Jonathan  of,  rabbi,  104. 

Rivkes,  Moses,  commentator,  34. 

Romm,  Menahem  Mann,  publisher, 
148-149. 

Rosensohn,  Joseph,  rabbi,  127. 

Rosensohn,  Moses,  reformer,  247. 

Rosenthal,  Leon,  financier,  200, 
237-238. 

Rothschild,  Baron  Edmund  de, 
288. 

Rurik,  Varangian  prince,  19. 

Russia,  Haskalah  in,  contrasted 
with  Haskalah  in  Galicia  and 
Germany,  12;  arrival  of  Ger¬ 
man  Jews  in,  18;  antiquity  of 
Jews  in,  19;  privileges  of 
Jews  in,  21;  Jewish  envoys 
to,  22;  mentioned  by  medieval 
scholars,  28-29;  Sefardim  and 
Ashkenazim  resort  to,  33-34; 
scientists  in,  37-39;  physicians 
in,  39-42;  status  of  Jews  of, 
before  Chmielnicki’s  uprising, 
42-45;  Jewish  self-government, 
school  system,  and  mode  of 
living  in,  45-52;  under  Ivan 
the  Terrible,  55-56;  under 
Peter  the  Great,  56;  under 
Elizabeta  Petrovna,  57;  state 
of  civilization  of,  60,  107;  fa¬ 
vorable  conditions  in,  under 
Catherine  II,  Paul  I,  and 
Alexander  I,  1x0-128;  Jewish 
patriotism  toward,  under  Alex¬ 
ander  I,  X17;  Russification  of 
Jews  of,  124-125;  opposition  to 
Haskalah  in,  133  f. ;  Jewish 
colonization  in,  140- 144;  cru¬ 
sade  against  the  Talmud  in, 


145-147;  opinions  of  promi¬ 
nent  Gentiles  on  Jews  of,  162, 
224-225 ;  literature  and  civili¬ 
zation  of,  under  Nicholas  I, 
189-190;  under  Alexander  II, 
222-226;  Jewish  contribution 
to  civilization  of,  20T-2o2, 
255;  sermons  in,  246;  de¬ 
fenders  of  Jews  in,  302-303; 
Macaulay  on  civilization  of. 
310  (n.  6). 

Sack,  Hayyim,  financier,  200. 

Sackheim,  Joseph,  merchant,  200. 

Safah  Berurah,  by  Hannover,  39. 

St.  Petersburg,  Imperial  Hermit¬ 
age  in,  19;  scene  of  martyr¬ 
dom,  57;  referred  to,  91,  104, 
267,  276,  286,  300;  Jews 

permitted  in,  111,  117,  126; 
expelled  from,  128,  153,  271; 
deputation  to,  129;  rabbini¬ 
cal  conferences,  151,  173, 

174-176,  230;  converts  in,  177;. 
first  graduate  of  University  of, 
200;  restriction  of  students  in, 
274;  Russification  in,  240; 
revolutionaries  at,  258. 

Salanter,  Israel,  rabbi,  241. 

Samuel  ben  Avigdor,  rabbi,  79. 

Samuel  ben  Mattathias,  Talmudist, 
40. 

Sanchez,  Antonio  Ribeiro,  physi¬ 
cian,  57. 

Sanhedrin,  the,  and  French  Russian 
Jews,  93. 

Satanov,  Isaac  Halevi,  litterateur, 
99,  217. 

Schapira,  Moses,  publisher,  148. 

Schapiro,  Constantin,  poet,  98. 

Schechter,  Solomon,  on  Hasidism, 
69. 

Schick,  Baruch  (Shklover),  scien¬ 
tist,  94,  96,  105-106,  1 1 9,  125. 


INDEX 


Schiller,  on  Maimon,  89;  referred 
to,  192. 

Schools,  secular,  163-165,  182-185, 
195-196,  227-228,  229,  235,  239, 
253,  273-274,  276-277,  290- 

292,  297. 

Sefer  ha-Berit,  102. 

Seiberling,  Joseph,  censor  of  He¬ 
brew  books,  200. 

Shabbatai  Zebi,  pseudo-Messiah, 
64,  69. 

Shalkovich,  Abraham  Lob  (Ben 
Avigdor),  296. 

Shatzkes’  Ha-Mafteah,  244. 

Shavli,  Moses  of,  writer  of  polem¬ 
ics,  36. 

Shibhe  ha-Besht,  123,  134. 

Shklov,  105,  124. 

Shkud,  Mikel  of,  rabbi,  61. 

Shneersohn,  Menahem  Mendel, 
zaddik,  175,  176. 

Shmoilovich,  Abraham,  merchant, 
22. 

Shulhan  'Aruk,  commentators  on, 
34,  36;  its  effect  on  Jewish 
life,  73;  Elijah  Vilna  on,  74; 
criticism  of,  123;  annotations 
to,  127;  referred  to,  215. 

Siberia,  140-143,  160. 

Sin'at  'Olam  le-'Atn  * Olam ,  280- 
281. 

Sixtus  V,  pope,  72. 

Skazanye  O  Florye  Rimlyaninye , 
by  Korolenko,  302. 

Skripitzyn’s  Information  about  the 
Killing  of  Christians,  etc., 
229. 

Slonim,  Samson  of,  rabbi,  106. 

Slonimsky,  Hayyim  Selig,  inventor 
and  editor,  199,  200,  201-202, 
203. 

Slutsk,  76,  105,  202. 

“  Slutsker  Maggid,  the,”  246. 

Smolensk,  21,  162. 


Smolenskin,  Perez,  and  Haskalah, 
13;  his  descriptions  of  the 
heder  and  yeshibah,  50,  266; 
his  life,  261-267;  his  concep¬ 
tion  of  Haskalah,  261;  on  na¬ 
tionalism,  262-263,  284;  on 

reformers,  264-265;  attacks 
Mendelssohn,  265;  on  the  pro¬ 
phetic  consciousness  of  the 
Jewish  masses,  266-267;  his 
popularity,  267;  organizes  the 
Kadimah,  285;  opposes  the  Al¬ 
liance  Israelite  Universelle, 
285. 

Sobieski,  John,  39. 

Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Has¬ 
kalah  among  the  Russian  Jews, 
237-239,  246,  252,  291-292. 

Sofer,  Moses,  rabbi,  133. 

Sofer,  Shabbatai,  rabbi,  36. 

Sokolov,  Nahum,  publicist,  280. 

Sosima,  monkish  proselyte,  26. 

Spector,  Isaac  Elhanan,  rabbi,  288. 

Speir,  Bima,  of  Mohilev,  oppo¬ 
nent  of  Frank,  104. 

Spinoza  and  Maimon  compared, 

86,  88. 

Stern,  Abraham  Jacob,  inventor, 
201. 

Stern,  Bezalel  (Basilius),  peda¬ 
gogue,  164,  165,  175,  176. 

Strashun,  Mattathias,  Talmudist, 
zo  3. 

Surovyetsky,  on  Russian  Jews, 
162,  318  (n.  1). 

Switzerland,  257,  298,  299,  300. 

Talmud ,  Der ,  in  seiner  Nichtigkeit, 
by  Buchner,  146. 

Talmud,  the,  the  study  of,  31, 
71-72;  burnt  in  public,  70; 
customs  of,  according  to  Eli¬ 
jah  Gaon,  74;  attacks  on,  145- 


352 


INDEX 


147,  17  o,  242-248;  published 
in  Russia,  147-149;  neglected 
in  Germany,  168. 

Talmud  Torah,  the,  47,  184. 

Talmudists,  ancient  Russo-Jewish, 
28-30;  opposed  by  Hasidism, 
66;  in  Vilna,  197-198. 

Tarnopol,  on  Russo-Jewish  women, 
299-300. 

Taz,  David,  rabbi,  34. 

Temkin’s  Derek  Salulah,  146. 

Te'udah  be-Y Israel,  by  Levinsohn, 
205-207,  209,  210,  212. 

Toledot  Ya'akob  Yosef ,  by  Jacob 
Joseph  Polonnoy,  65. 

Tolstoi,  245,  250,  302. 

Troki,  city,  22. 

Troki,  Abraham,  author  and  phy¬ 
sician,  39. 

Troki,  Isaac  ben  Abraham,  Karaite 
scholar,  36. 

Turgenief,  on  Russia,  224;  his 
Zhid,  224;  referred  to,  245, 
250;  on  Alexander  II,  251; 
his  Virgin  Soil,  and  Fathers 
and  Sons,  257;  his  Lithuanian 
Jewish  character,  259-260. 

Tushiyah  Society,  296-297. 

Ukraine,  the,  Jewish  community 
in,  20;  famous  for  scholars, 
35-36;  Jewish  self-government 
in,  44;  expulsions  from,  56-57; 
state  of  morality  in,  64; 
Hasidism  in,  69,  122;  first 

school  in,  164. 

Uman,  59,  164. 

United  States,  the,  158,  220,  270, 
283. 

Uvarov,  on  persecution,  155,  302; 
on  “re-education,”  171,  174, 
I75>  182. 

Vassile  Lupu,  hospodar  of  Mol¬ 
davia,  40. 


Vassilyevich,  Ivan,  23,  26. 

Vernacular,  the,  18,  29,  30-31,  38, 
188,  194,  255. 

Vilna,  scene  of  martyrdom,  27; 
Talmudists  of,  34;  kahal  of, 
62;  persecution  of  Hasidim, 
76;  the  last  rabbi  of,  79;  not¬ 
ables  of,  91,  92,  124,  150;  first 
graduates  from  University  of, 
126-127;  opposition  to  Has- 
kalah  in,  133;  first  publication 
of  the  Talmud  in,  148-149; 
first  assembly  of  Maskilim  in, 
165;  innovations  in,  166;  re¬ 
ception  of  Lilienthal  in,  172, 
173;  rabbinical  seminary  at, 
175,  186,  202;  yeshibot  of, 

197;  Haskalah  in,  198,  200, 
206,  246;  champions  of  Jews 
in,  225;  referred  to,  230,  292, 
295. 

Virgin  Soil,  by  Turgenief,  257. 

Vital,  Hayyim,  Cabbalist,  103, 
134- 

Vitebsk,  128,  202,  292. 

Vitebsk,  Menahem  Mendel  of,  zad- 
dik,  on  Haskalah,  135. 

Vladimir,  grand  duke,  20. 

Volhynia,  jurisdiction  over,  44; 
massacres  in,  60;  Hasidism  in, 
69,  81,  104;  first  complete 

edition  of  the  Talmud  pub¬ 
lished  in,  148;  referred  to, 
162,  195;  blood  accusations  in, 
208. 

Volozhin,  Hayyim,  dean,  135,  150- 
151,  175,  176. 

Volozhin,  Isaac  of,  dean,  15 1. 

Volozhin,  yeshibah  of,  1 50-1 52, 
245>  295. 

Vosnitzin,  Captain,  martyr,  27, 
57- 

Wahl,  Saul,  Jewish  Polish  king 
(?),  22. 


353 


INDEX 


Warsaw,  Jewish  community  in, 
20;  persecution  in,  58;  pro¬ 
test  at,  62;  defended  by  Jew¬ 
ish  soldiers,  115;  first  Yiddish 
paper  in,  124;  rabbinic  col¬ 
lege  of,  144-145,  170,  202; 

censor  in,  148;  condition  of, 
159;  German  influence  in,  196; 
Maskilim  of,  202,  206,  246;  re¬ 
ferred  to,  286. 

Way,  Lewis,  English  missionary, 
129-130,  144. 

Weigel,  Katharina,  proselyte,  27. 

Wengeroff’s  Memoirs,  163;  on  Rus- 
so-Jewish  women,  300. 

Wessely,  Naphtali  Hartwig,  quot¬ 
ed,  38;  course  of  study  pre¬ 
scribed  by,  75;  his  ancestry, 
77;  his  opinion  on  Russo-Jew- 
ish  students,  80,  92,  108;  his 
Mosaide,  98;  his  Yen  Leba¬ 
non,  105;  his  Epistles  and 
Yen  Lebanon  banned,  132, 
133,  192. 

What  to  Do,  by  Chernichevsky, 

257. 

White,  on  Jewish  farmers,  288. 

Wissotzky,  Kalonymos,  philanthro¬ 
pist,  292. 

Wohl,  censor  of  Hebrew  books, 
252,  294. 

Wolf,  Levy,  jurist,  126. 

Wolff’s  Metaphysics,  84-86;  Math¬ 
ematics,  90,  108. 

Wolper,  Michael,  educator,  294. 

Women’s  education,  45-46,  253, 

258,  259,  276,  296,  299-301. 

Words  of  Peace  and  Truth,  .by 

Wessely,  75. 

Workingmen,  Russo-Jewish,  163, 
293-294.  318  (n.  2). 

Yankele  Kovner.  See  Barit,  Jacob. 

Yaroslav,  fair  of,  49. 


Yaroslav,  Aaron,  friend  of  Men¬ 
delssohn,  81. 

Yavan,  Baruch,  diplomat,  104. 

Yelisavetgrad,  247,  269,  292. 

Yen  Lebanon,  by  Wessely,  105, 
132,  133,  192. 

Yeralash,  201. 

Yeshibat  'Ez  Hayyim,  1 50-1 52,  175, 
184,  254. 

Yeshibot,  32,  46-49,  168. 

Yeven  Mezulah,  by  Hannover,  48- 
49- 

Yiddish,  as  spoken  by  Russian 
Jews,  38;  first  used  for  secu¬ 
lar  instruction,  100-101,  124; 
first  weekly  in,  123,  196;  stud¬ 
ied  for  missionary  purposes, 
145;  employed  by  Maskilim, 
167,  232;  by  Zionists,  286. 

Zabludovsky,  Jehiel  Michael,  Tal¬ 
mudist,  199. 

Zacharias,  monkish  proselyte,  26. 

Zacharias  of  Kiev,  missionary,  25. 

Zaddikim,  66,  122,  220. 

Zamoscz,  city,  90,  202. 

Zamoscz,  Israel  Moses  Halevi,  in¬ 
structor  of  Mendelssohn,  77, 
90,  195. 

Zamoscz,  Reuben  of,  quoted,  80. 

Zamoscz,  Solomon  of,  liturgical 
poet,  35. 

Zangwill,  on  Maimon,  88;  referred 
to,  297. 

Zaremba,  proselyte,  27. 

Zaslav,  fair  of,  49;  blood  accu¬ 
sation  in,  208. 

Zaslaver,  Jacob,  Massorite,  36. 

Zbitkover,  Samuel,  financier,  1x6. 

Zederbaum,  Alexander,  publisher, 
288. 

Zeitlin,  Joshua,  financier,  118-119. 

Zeker  Rab,  124. 

Zelmele,  Talmudist,  119-120. 


INDEX 


Zerubbabel,  by  Levinsohn,  2 10-2 12, 
213. 

Zhagory,  200,  202. 

Zhitomir,  rabbinical  seminary  at, 
175,  186,  197,  202,  248;  print¬ 
ing-press  in,  230;  trade  school 
in,  235;  Evening  and  Sabbath 
schools  in,  239, 


Zionism,  267,  284-287;  difficulties 
of,  287-288;  effect  of,  289-291. 

Zohar,  63,  134. 

Zunser,  Eliakum,  badhan,  on  Alex¬ 
ander  II,  231;  on  Orthodoxy, 
240-241 ;  on  the  “  intelligen- 
tia,”  278;  on  Zionism,  290;  on 
the  awakening,  324*327  (n.  27). 


<£$e  JSorb  Q$>afftmore  (press 

BALTIMORE,  MD.,  U.  S.  A. 


355 


* 


DATE  DUE 

■ 

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